Pride and Prejudice and Potter
by Neale
Summary: What happens when Harry gives in and reads one of Hermione's favourite novels over the summer holiday and then gets stuck in Austinland in his head after the Dementor sucks out Tom instead of him on the Hogwarts Express because Remus is too worried about doing anything the Headmaster might not like to move quickly?
1. Pride and Prejudice and Potter

**OK, struggling with Tuney again…. No doesn't sound right... I'm struggling with progressing the _story_ Tuney and the Tots again…. Yes, that's better…. and another short story idea wouldn't get out of my head until I laid down a few chapters. **

**What happens when Harry gives in and reads one of Hermione's favourite novels over the summer holiday and then gets stuck in Austinland in his head after the Dementor sucks out Tom instead of him on the Hogwarts Express because Remus is too worried about doing anything the Headmaster might not like to move quickly? Hermione and the other witches who have read the story are trying not to laugh at the image it presents while Harry has to live with the images in his head, but he's gotten more than a little of use from the experience.**

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR or Jane Austin's stories.**

Hermione Granger was anxiously sitting at the bedside of her her best and only true friend, Harry Potter, in Hogwarts' Infirmary, much as he'd done the previous school year after she was petrified by the basilisk that had been unleashed on the school by the possessed Ginny Weasley. She wasn't a particularly religious girl, so she was shocked and overjoyed when her prayers were answered as Harry groaned and opened his eyes after laying there in a magical coma for three days.

Madam Pomfrey's instructions about being careful with him because he would be in a fragile state when he came out of the coma were forgotten as Hermione joyously leapt on Harry and hugged the stuffing out of him, but she froze as she heard what he was whispering in her ear. "Believe me, I'm happy to see you too, but do you think you could possibly ease off enough for me to survive the experience and spend the rest of my life with you love?" Hermione was mortified and tried to pull back but Harry grabbed hold to keep her there as he continued whispering in her ear.

"No! Wait! I need to tell you something and this is the best way to do that without anyone else hearing! Now don't take this the wrong way, because where I've been I've had a lot of time to think about what's important to me, and nothing else in this world compares to you when it comes to that, but I need you to get Susan Bones in here to talk to me as soon as possible because I need her Aunt Amelia Bones, the head of the DMLE, to help me before Dumbledore, the Death Eaters and their minions manage to kill me!"

Hermione did pull back this time. "Harry! What are you saying? Prof…. Mmmph!"

Harry managed to shut her up by the simple mechanism of pulling her in again to snog her senseless. Hermione was shocked into inactivity at first, but that quickly turned into being a _very_ willing participant in the activity. Poppy Pomfrey was shocked at first by the scene that met her as she came out of her office to check on her newly awake patient, but then she couldn't help smiling at the evidence that these two must have finally worked out what they meant to each other over the summer holidays. She was both heart warmed by the budding romance and laughing to herself about the fact that she'd just won fifty galleons off Minerva….

'Miss Granger is much too dedicated to her studies to engage in that type of activity indeed!'

Minerva should have remembered the fact that Lily Evans had been just as 'dedicated to her studies' up until she succumbed to James Potter's charms in Seventh Year. Apparently James' son's charms were more irresistible than his though, because he'd managed to win over his witch four years earlier. She'd have to do something nice for young Harry actually, because the terms of the bet she'd made with Minerva last year were that the prize went down by ten galleons each year, so Harry beating James by four years meant another forty galleons for her.

When they finally broke the kiss, Harry looked Hermione in the eye and softly asked… "Please?"

Hermione worried her lip, still having trouble accepting that Professor Dumbledore would do something like that, but after that kiss she'd do just about anything Harry asked, so she nodded, leaning into peck him on the lips again. "Of course Harry, but we _will_ be talking about this when we have the chance!"

Harry snorted. "Yeah, along with the fact that thanks to that _wonderful_ book you convinced me to take home and read over the summer holidays, I've spent the last God knows how many months stuck in Regency era Britain as Fitzwilliam _Henry_ Darcy, trying to woo the utterly incredible but rather opinionated and pig headed Miss Elizabeth _Hermione_ Bennett while simultaneously trying to protect my good friend Charles Bingley from the gold digging machinations of Miss Bennett's mother _and_ help Elizabeth stop her wilfully stupid little sister Lydia ruining both herself and the family's good name by running off to elope with the dastardly George Wickham..."

Hermione put her hand to her mouth in an attempt to stifle the giggle that that image invoked. "_Oh_ _Nooo? _Was it just us, or were the rest of the characters people we know too?"

"Oh _Yes_! And the main characters were all people we know. Neville was Charles Bingley, Pansy Parkinson was his sister Caroline, Professor Flitwick and Missus Weasley were Mister and Missus Bennett, Lavender Brown, Pavarti Patil and Susan Bones were Lydia, Kitty and Jane Bennett…. Daphne Greengrass was Mary Bennett, Ron was Wickham….. Missus Weasley was _also_ Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Ginny was her daughter Anne. Both Professor Flitwick and Neville also had two roles as Professor Flitwick was also Missus Bennett's brother, Edward Gardiner, with Professor Sprout as Missus Gardiner, and Neville was also Colonel Fitzwilliam. Percy was Mister Collins, Penny Clearwater was Charlotte Lucas and strangely enough, my beloved little sister Georgina was that blonde Ravenclaw girl in the year below us Luna Lovegood…. She, Daphne and Penny Clearwater were the only notable characters we haven't had much to do with. Penny wasn't too hard to work out with the way Percy's sniffing around her all the time, but it took me a while to work out why my mind linked me to Luna and Daphne like that….. Now, while I would love to spend more time with you My Love…. I can see that the Mistress of Pain over there is impatient to start poking and prodding at me again, so I expect that I will have to grin and bear her ministrations..."

Hermione swatted him on the shoulder distractedly, as her mind was churning over what who he had associated with each Pride and Prejudice character was saying, and the disturbing accuracy of most of them was making her question what that was saying about the true nature of the others, especially Ron and Mrs Weasley. She could see that the only reason Harry was willing to say this in front of Madam Pomfrey was that he was confident that she wouldn't know the Muggle story the characters came from. "Harry! Behave!… I will bring our friends up to see you as soon as I can."

With that she leant in to give him another quick kiss, because kissing Harry was something she was quickly becoming addicted to… not that that was too surprising, considering how much time she'd spent fantasising about that very thing over summer ever since she remembered how he spent most nights sitting at her bedside talking to her while she was petrified, and the kisses on the cheek and forehead he'd given her…. and the lips that one time, which he then apologised for and said that he had to try and see whether a sleeping beauty style true love's kiss would manage to bring her back. She turned to Madam Pomfrey and smiled shyly. "I will leave him to your tender mercies then Madam Pomfrey… Is it alright if I come back later with some of Harry's other friends who have been worried about him?"

Poppy smiled at her. "Of course Dear, no more than one or two at a time though as we don't want to wear him out, that could hinder his recovery."

Hermione nodded. "No, of course not. Thank you Madam Pomfrey!" and with that she dashed out.

* * *

Poppy was happy with what the diagnostic scans were telling her, until Harry started telling her in a strained and worried voice…. "Madam Pomfrey, I didn't want to say anything while Hermione was here but I'm afraid…. I can tell that there's something really wrong with me, I'm fading in and out all the time and I can feel that something's _missing _inside me_…_ I can't see properly either! I don't believe that I will last much longer….."

"Don't worry Mister Potter, I'll get Professor Dumbledore, he will know what to do…."

"_That's_ your answer? I tell you there's something wrong with me and I think I'm dying but rather than get me to healers who may be able to save me, all you want to do is go have a chat with the _Headmaster_? Snape and the Slytherins were right, I _am_ an idiot, why else would I believe that anyone in this world would _ever_ do anything to try and help me? Well if you won't do anything to try and save me, at least tell Hermione that I truly did love her…." With that, Harry rolled over so that he was facing away from Poppy and started crying.

He didn't like playing her like this, but if she _wasn't_ Dumbledore's willing pawn, the old bastard had obviously screwed with her head too much to be able to depend on her to do the right thing unless she was pushed to the edge. His plan worked, because triggering her need to honour her healer oaths and do what she could to save a patient managed to overcome the compulsion Dumbledore had put on her to not do anything with Harry without his express permission, and less than five minutes after Harry turned his back on her, he heard her on the Floo to St Mungo's.

The healers who came though from St Mungo's turned to angrily demand to know why Poppy hadn't reported the damage, compulsion and confundus charms, memory and willpower blocks, bindings and potions their scans were showing on Harry Potter, but Poppy's expression made them cast diagnostic scans on her, and then stun her so they could take her with them when they transferred Harry to St Mungo's for treatment. When Hermione and Susan Bones arrived in the Infirmary, finding it empty, Hermione fell apart. She was so much of a mess that Susan actually slapped her to break her out of it. Susan then held her until she had managed to pull herself together again, and had her stand beside her before she took off the necklace she was wearing under her robes and spoke into the pendant attached to it.

"_Emergency! I need help!_"

The necklace disappeared, but her Aunt appeared in front of them about ten minutes later, holding onto the necklace along with half a dozen battle hardened senior Aurors. That necklace was in fact quite a clever piece of wizarding technology, as when the 'Emergency! I need help!' trigger was spoken into it, it would flash off to a predetermined location and replay what had been said into it, then return to a point just in front of where it had been sent from with whoever was holding onto it when the appropriate response was spoken into it. They had found that this could get around most wards set up to block incoming portkeys, as the portkey was returning to its original location rather than originating externally.

It didn't take long for the girls to explain what they were worried about, and for Hermione to tell Susan's Aunt what Harry had said about why he needed her help. The Aurors quickly determined that the only magic used in the Infirmary recently other than multiple diagnostic scans cast by Poppy Pomfrey and two or three other witches or wizards was a single stunner that was cast _after_ the diagnostic scans by one of the other witches or wizards. The Floo which was located the Infirmary proper had been used several times though, which Amelia Bones believed explained why the Infirmary was empty, because that particular Floo was not connected to the Floo Network at all, it had been set up as a dedicated connection to the Emergency Treatment ward at St Mungo's.

* * *

After what Hermione had just told her, Amelia wasn't inclined to let Dumbledore or anyone else at Hogwarts know what they were doing, or even that they were there, so she just took the girls to St Mungo's with them. They soon found Harry Potter and Poppy Pomfrey, along with a gaggle of quite angry healers working on them when they arrived at St Mungo's, and one of the healers was delegated to fill the DMLE in on what they'd found.

Basically, what it came down to was that Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, the Saviour of Magical Britain, if not Magical Europe, had had a piece of Lord Voldemort's foul… for want of a better term… 'soul' embedded in the famous scar on his forehead for nearly twelve years. What's more, just after the attack that left his parents dead and him marked with that scar, _someone_.. apparently Albus Dumbledore according to what Mr Potter had told them… had bound his magical essence to the point where he was lucky to be alive and blocked all of his memories up to that point and most of his willpower, they also cast multiple compulsion and confundus charms on him to control how he behaved and how he reacted to the muggle relatives he was left with…. The healer angrily summarised the matter at this point.

"So they blocked his memories of who he and his family were, set him up to react in ways that would cause his muggle relatives to attack him and bound his magic to the point where he would be unable to protect or heal himself _when_ they attacked him. We want to begin treatment to remove all the residual damage and stunted growth caused by malnutrition and continued chronic physical abuse from his relatives but he insisted on talking to you before we did Madam Bones. Our scans show that Mister Potter's magic had grown to the point where he broke some of the bindings by the time he was four or five, which undoubtedly was what kept him alive, but the compulsion and confundus charms and memory and willpower blocks apparently stayed in place until that dementor tried to suck his soul out on the Hogwarts Express on the way to Hogsmeade three days ago. It would appear that Voldemort's soul fragment wasn't anchored to Mister Potter as well as his own soul was because it was mostly the soul fragment that the dementor sucked out before a teacher who was on the Express managed to scare it off. From what we have determined, the dementor removed something like seven eighths of Voldemort's soul fragment and a thirty second of Mister Potter's own soul, there is a gap there but it is a tiny amount. We have removed the last traces of Voldemort's soul fragment, along with the remnants of the bindings on his magic, memory and willpower blocks and compulsion and confundus charms, and are currently flushing the rest of the loyalty and compulsion potions from his system."

"Whatever protections had been placed on Mister Potter via the protection rune which had apparently been painted or inscribed on his forehead were strong enough to prevent Mister Potter being possessed by Voldemort's soul fragment, but the magic of the soul fragment was so powerful that a significant portion of his magical energy has been taken up in keeping it contained to protect him from it since Halloween Nineteen Eighty One. Since the event on the Hogwarts Express, from what we observed, Mister Potter's growing magical energy and possibly the fact that the part they were anchored to was sucked out has broken the memory and willpower blocks. Mister Potter's memories now reach pretty much all the way back to his birth, but he _also_ has most of Lord Voldemort's…. or more accurately Tom Marvolo Riddle's…. memories and knowledge, because those memories stayed with him when Riddle's soul fragment was sucked out. Mister Potter and Tom Riddle's memories paint a very different picture of Albus Dumbledore to what we're used to being told about the _Leader of the Light_. From what Mister Potter has told us, much of the three days he spent in a magical coma was spent getting these memories into some sort of order…." He snorted. "Though I dare say that that was complicated by the fact that he was apparently stuck in a fantasy world modelled on the Muggle romance novel Pride and Prejudice, which Miss Granger loaned him to read over the Summer Holidays….."

"And then there's Healer Pomfrey… We were all set to have all her memories of the healing arts removed and quite possibly send her to Azkaban for failing to report or attempt to heal the very obvious damage and interference showing on Mister Potter, but then we realised that something was very wrong with her because she wasn't showing any sign of being at all worried about the fact that she'd breached her oaths so badly, so we scanned her and found that she had been interfered with to a criminal degree as well. Madam Pomfrey was stunned and brought back here with Mister Potter to be treated…. We've removed most of the compulsion and confundus charms and memory and willpower blocks from her and are currently trying to stop her harming herself, now that she's aware of how badly she breached her healer's oaths…. The magical signature on the manipulations done on Healer Pomfrey match the ones on Mister Potter so there is no doubt that they were done by the same wizard, and they've both told us enough to be certain that that wizard was Albus Dumbledore."

* * *

Amelia decided that it would be best to have this talk with Harry Potter, so he would let the healers start the healing he needed, with that they headed across to his bed. Most of the adults were shocked when Harry ignored Madam Bones and grabbed Hermione's hand to pull her in for a loving but rather less than chaste kiss, then continued to hold her hand when he turned to the Director of the DMLE. "Greetings Madam Bones, I must say that you look rather more careworn than you did the last time I saw you, I take it that trying to get people to do the right thing in this world has been rather a trial for you?"

Amelia cocked her head at him, trying to remember when she had met Harry Potter since he returned to their world, but he explained. "You came to Saint Mungo's to congratulate my parents on the birth of their first born and heir to the House of Potter and almost hexed my magically accepted and blood bound Godfather Sirius Black when he suggested that with the way you were cooing over me, you were bound to be having a baby of your own soon."

Amelia stared at him in shock, because now that he said it, she remembered that was _exactly_ what had happened. But he hadn't been more than a couple of days old at that point, _how_ could be remember….. At that something he said struck her. Harry nodded when he saw that she'd gotten the point.

"Yes, with my parents' full agreement, Sirius Orion Black performed the formal rituals to be magically accepted as my Godfather, become my father's blood brother and blood adopt me as his official heir when I was about a fortnight old. From his discussions with my parents, he'd been rendered irreversibly sterile by a particularly virulent magical strain of the pox he had caught when he was catting about with some of the less chaste Pureblood girls at Hogwarts who were doing their best to take Molly Prewett's title of the Harlot of Hogwarts off her and he wanted to ensure that his Black relatives never got their hands on the legacy his Uncle Alphard had left him, so he decided that formally making me his heir and leaving everything to me would be the best way to do that. The blood brother and blood adoption rituals were because other than his fiancé and one disowned cousin, he regarded me and my parents as the last family he had left and he wanted to make those ties official. From what Dad and Uncle Siri were saying about you Madam Bones, you understand the old ways well enough to know that having those rituals magically accepted means that Sirius Black would not be alive if he had betrayed my family to Lord Voldemort in the manner that all the official stories have it. I can also assure you that Uncle Siri was _not_ the secret keeper for Gryffindor Cottage in Godric's Hollow, the secret keeper was in fact the Rat, Peter Pettigrew…. Which leads us to something else… Does the DMLE have a pensieve that can be brought here Madam Bones? I have some memories that I need to show you."

Amelia was by now intrigued and confused, so she sent one of her Aurors off to collect the pensieve that was kept for trials in the Wizengamot, and the records of Sirius Black's trial while he was at it, and bring them to the hospital as quick as he could, but she had other questions. "Presuming that what you are saying is true Mister Potter, why would Professor Dumbledore have told everyone that Sirius Black was your parents' Secret Keeper?"

"Because he needed Uncle Siri out of the way so Uncle Siri couldn't interfere with his plans for me. I was there when Dumbledore and Uncle Siri witnessed my parents' last wills and now that all the blocks and confundus charms Dumbledore put on me have been removed, I have my photographic memory back. I originally had two magically accepted godfathers and three magically accepted godmothers, but Uncle Siri's fiancé Marlene McKinnon and her family were killed a few weeks before we were attacked in July Nineteen Eighty One and I'm told that the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom are both here somewhere at Saint Mungos in a long term care ward and Pandora Lovegood died in a suspicious accident four or five years ago. Uncle Siri and Auntie Marlene were my parents' first named choice to get custody of me in the event of their death, Uncle Frank and Auntie Alice were their second choice and Auntie Pan and her husband were the third. There were several other people on the list of possible guardians but one thing Mum was adamant about and Dad agreed with was that I wasn't to go anywhere near her sister, my Muggle Aunt Petunia Dursley, because she hated anything to do with magic and would be bound to take that out on me. Dad added that Aunt Petunia's husband, Vernon Dursley, was the worst kind of Muggle and vowed that if anyone ever gave that pig access to his son, he'd find some way to make them pay from beyond the grave if he had to. So I presume that Dumbledore lied about Uncle Siri being the Secret Keeper to make sure that he would be arrested and obviously prevented him testifying at his trial to keep him out of the way because I'm told that Uncle Siri was sent to Azkaban for life…. You see by that stage, Dumbledore had already quite literally dumped me on Aunt Petunia's doorstep in the middle of the night… In the middle of the night in _November_, mind you… with a note to say that my parents were dead so they would have to take me in, but it urged them not to spare the rod when I needed discipline because I must be made to behave when the time came for me to take my place in this world…. So he couldn't afford to have Uncle Siri being able to claim custody of me under the terms of the will. If Uncle Frank and Auntie Alice are in here, I can understand why they couldn't get custody of me, but why didn't Auntie Pan or anyone else on the list claim custody of me?"

Amelia was swearing and the Aurors and Healers who had heard what Harry had said were shocked, because they just couldn't believe that the great Albus Dumbledore would do what the boy said, but the swearing was coming from a different direction when Amelia answered Harry's question though.

"No one who was named in the will as your potential guardians would have known about their right to claim custody of you Mister Potter, because Albus Dumbledore used his position as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot to have your parents' wills sealed and have himself named as your Magical Guardian the day after they were killed, which means that only he, Sirius Black and you know what was in their wills…. But even if he wasn't their secret keeper Mister Potter, Sirius Black is still guilty of killing Peter Pettigrew and thirteen Muggles when he caught up with Pettigrew a few days later…."

Harry cut her off. "No, he _isn't_… well I can't say for sure about the Muggles but I seriously doubt that he was responsible for their deaths, and I _can_ state categorically that he did _not_ kill Peter Pettigrew, because the Rat is still alive, and I can tell you where to find him! That's what I need the pensieve for."

That demanded answers, so Harry went on to explain that his father, Uncle Siri and Peter Pettigrew were all officially unregistered animagi, though he'd heard his parents and Uncle Siri talking about that once and apparently the details of his father and Uncle Siri's animagus forms were in fact recorded in a sealed section of their Auror records.

"My father's animagus form was a stag, which was called Prongs. Uncle Siri's form is a black Irish Wolfhound that fits the description of a Grim and is called Padfoot…. I actually saw Uncle Siri as Padfoot when I was running away from the Dursleys' after I turned Marge the Barge into a weather balloon and while he didn't show himself to me as Uncle Siri, he made no attempt to harm me in any way so all that shite about him supposedly breaking out of Azkaban just to kill me is ridiculous! And Pettigrew's form is a fat garden rat called Wormtail…. it's also been called Scabbers for the last eleven or twelve years as he's been Percy Weasley and now Ron Weasley's pet rat for that long!"

He stopped and turned to Hermione with a smile. "And while Crookshanks is undoubtedly brilliant Hermione, he already knew what Scabbers really was because he joined the Potter family as a kitten just before I was born. I expect he's been scaring off anyone who showed any interest in him while he was waiting for me to appear at the Magical Menagerie so he could claim me again, but when he saw the link between us and that I wasn't recognising him he obviously decided to claim you so that he could protect the both of us while he found some way to make me open his eyes….. Mum always said that the way Crookshanks reacted to Pettigrew proved that there was something wrong with him, because he's half kneazle and they can sense untrustworthy characters far better than we can."

Amelia was looking thoughtful. "Do you have any way of proving this Mister Potter?"

"Well Dad and Uncle Siri always said that they were vulnerable to the Animagus revealing spell in their animal forms so I expect that's the best way of proving it, but from what the witch running the Magical Menagerie said, Scabbers has lived at least three or four times as long as he should have if he was a natural rat, even a magical one…. If you get a pensieve here I can show you what Wormtail and Scabbers look like, and does anyone know what finger Pettigrew left behind when Uncle Siri supposedly blew him up, and how much of it was left?"

The Aurors were looking at each other until one spoke up. "It was his left ring finger, cleanly taken off at the knuckle, why?"

Harry shook his head. "_Cleanly_ taken off at the knuckle? And no one ever questioned that? No wonder Uncle Siri ended up in Azkaban! Anyway, the reason I asked is that by some _remarkable_ coincidence, Scabbers is missing two thirds of that toe on his left front paw!"

The Auror was pissed off at being taken the Mickey of like that, but Amelia snapped at him. "Quiet! He's absolutely correct, the fact that no one ever questioned something that obvious is inexcusable and highly suspicious. We'll look at the images of this rat when the pensieve gets here and then we are going back to Hogwarts to see what happens to Mister Weasley's pet rat when we cast the Animagus revealing spell on it. This whole business stinks to high heaven, I just wish we had enough proof to arrest Albus Dumbledore, but we don't…." She looked around the group, Aurors, Healers and teenagers alike. "No one is to say a word about any of this until I have enough to take the matter before the Wizengamot, in fact I will have oaths of secrecy from everyone before we leave here!"

* * *

A chill went up her spine when Harry piped up at that. "While I have no problem giving an oath of secrecy Madam Bones and I can draw on Tom Riddle's Occlumency knowledge to protect myself, that will not help Hermione, Susan or Madam Pomfrey when Dumbledore or his pet Death Eater Snape use Legilimency on them, which they do to me and the other students and staff of Hogwarts quite often.… Might I suggest that, with Hermione, Susan and Madam Pomfrey's permission, secrecy charms be used to block knowledge of what we have been discussing here being taken from them with Legilimency?"

Hermione could see from everyone else's expressions that they knew what Harry was talking about, and that they were worried, so she asked for someone to explain. Amelia had a curious expression as she motioned for Harry to do so and he smirked as he nodded and started talking, picking up on the fact that she wanted to get an idea of just how much he _had_ learned from Tom Riddle's memories. By the time he finished, she was looking both impressed and worried, because he'd explained more than she'd ever known about the subjects of Legilimency and Occlumency and it was obvious that he was just scratching the surface of what he knew. He also proved that he was able to use his knowledge of Occlumency to protect his own mind and with the girls' and Poppy Pomfrey's permission, applied secrecy charms to them that none of the Aurors could break, so not even Albus Dumbledore should be able to do so without exposing the methods he was using to try and find out what they knew, but they retained an understanding of the subjects and risks associated with them.

The Auror had returned with the pensieve and file that showed that Sirius Black had never received a trial, nor was the matter investigated in accordance to the legal requirements. He had been sent to Azkaban for life on the basis of an executive order signed by Millicent Bagnold, then Minister for Magic, Albus Dumbledore, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Bartemius Crouch Senior, then Director of the Department of Magical Law enforcement and now Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. As for the so-called evidence he was charged on, there was Albus Dumbledore's statement that he was the Potter's secret keeper and had betrayed them to be killed by Lord Voldemort, and a written statement by then Junior Minister for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and now Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge that the witnesses had all stated that Sirius Black had blown up Peter Pettigrew and thirteen Muggles before they were obliviated. This was corroborated by the written statement of Auror John Dawlish, who had held a grudge against Sirius back then because he'd been promoted over him and who was now the Minister's personal bodyguard and henchman. Sirius's wand hadn't been tested for spells cast either, or if it had nothing had been recorded because the results didn't fit in with their stories.

This was bad, because Dumbledore, Fudge and Crouch were all too powerful in Magical Britain to go after and Amelia knew that she wouldn't be allowed to break Dawlish to get the truth from him either, but the memories that Harry and Hermione had shown them supported what he was saying about Ron Weasley's rat's appearance and age, so they were going back to Hogwarts to confirm whether or not he was in fact Peter Pettigrew in animagus form. The only twist was that now they were going to have to try and slip in and out quietly without Dumbledore knowing if they could, in the hope of keeping it quiet until they had a chance to get Sirius and the rat proper trials in front of the Wizengamot.

* * *

There was something else that had been done while they were waiting, Harry called for Dobby, bonding with him so that Dobby could get Sirius' magical signature from his mind and sending him out to find his Godfather in either human or animagus form and bring him back as quick as he could. Dobby soon popped back into the ward with Sirius as Padfoot, struggling and trying to bite him until he saw Harry and froze, changing back and asking "Harry?" in a cracked voice that had hardly been used for the last twelve years.

When Sirius finally released him from the desperate hug he'd folded him into, Harry convinced him to let the Healers see to him and flooed to Hogwarts with Amelia and half of the Aurors to capture a rat traitor. The girls stayed at St Mungo's with Poppy, Sirius and the other half of the Aurors.

Harry used Riddle's knowledge of the secret passages of Hogwarts to get them past everyone and into the Gryffindor common room without being seen. The other boys in his dorm room were all in class at that point, so once Harry slipped in and confirmed that the rat was sleeping (like Ron, it would do nothing but eat and sleep if it could), he called the others in and they cast the Animagus revealing spell on it, stunning Pettigrew as soon as he returned to his human form and securing him with magic suppressing shackles clamped around his wrists, ankles, waist and neck.

Having the Dark Mark on his arm and Voldemort's wand on his person (along with his own and a few more that they didn't doubt were stolen from Death Eaters' victims) put paid to any questions anyone could have had about Pettigrew's guilt, so with the rat properly secured, they used the secret passages to return to the Infirmary and flooed back to the Emergency Treatment Ward at St Mungo's. They had to hold Sirius back long enough for the Black rage at the sight of the one who had betrayed them all to abate enough to get him to listen to them, but he finally grudgingly agreed that they needed the rat alive to stand trial if he was to have any chance of clearing his name.

Amelia flooed away to talk to someone about a place to hide Sirius and Pettigrew until they could set up a trial got them, and she had a grim smile on her face when she returned. Pettigrew was sent off to the Department of Mysteries with two of the Aurors, once again trussed up like a turkey in the magic suppressing shackles that they'd taken off just long enough for the healers to confirm that there was no medical reason for him not to live long enough to stand trial. Both Lily Potter and Pandora Lovegood had been exceptional Unspeakables and Saul Croaker, the Head of the Department of Mysteries, had thought of the two brilliant young witches like favourite nieces, as well as having high hopes for what they would achieve in the future, so he took the fact that he was convinced that they'd both been killed to prevent them interfering with the plans of one Albus Dumbledore quite personally. This meant that he was quite happy to provide secure holding cells for both Pettigrew and Sirius and keep them hidden from everyone until a trial could be arranged for them, but they had something else to do before Sirius went back into hiding.

* * *

As Director of the Department of Mysteries, it was Saul's business to know everyone's secrets, so he knew that while Orion and Walburga Black had done their best to have their eldest son Sirius the Third disowned and cast out of the House of Black, the actual Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Duke Arcturus Black the Third, had never done so. In fact Arcturus had replaced his son Orion with Sirius as his heir after Orion and Walburga pushed Sirius to the point of running away from home at Sixteen, to block their attempts to give any more of the Black fortune to Lord Voldemort.

Saul also knew that Sirius had never been formally convicted, because he had remained the Heir Apparent of the House of Black up until his Grandfather's death, and from that point all that was required for him to be formally accepted as Duke Black, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was for him to be accepted by the family magic of the House of Black at Gringotts. While there was no legal requirement for wizarding witnesses to the acceptance as Head of the House of Black and its Associated Houses and Families, in view of Sirius' current official legal status in Magical Britain, it was agreed that having Countess Griselda Marchbanks, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Marchbanks, Director of the Wizarding Examination Authority of Magical Britain and one of the most senior members of the Wizengamot of Magical Britain, and Baron Saul Croaker, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Croaker and Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic of Magical Britain present to bear witness and attest to what occurred would be a good idea. They would also have the Heir Apparent and Regent of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Bones there, because when the Regent of the House of Bones was the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry of Magic of Magical Britain it added weight to the proof, and she could quite legitimately state that she was 'escorting her prisoner'.

While they were stacking the deck, Saul had also supplied Amelia with his copies of the Potters' wills, which stated that Harry legally had the right to claim all his titles and take control of every aspect of his houses upon his Eleventh birthday (yet another thing that Dumbledore had unlawfully withheld from him), so it was agreed that they would witness Harry accepting his titles as Duke Potter-Peverell, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses and Clans and having Griselda accepted as his Regent and Legal Guardian in Magical Britain first, then they'd all witness Sirius accepting his titles.

Hermione had gone to Gringotts with them, as she, Harry and Susan would all be going back to Hogwarts with Poppy once their business at Gringotts was done, and Gringott the Sixth, Head Goblin of Gringotts had been looking at her through the proceedings (the Houses of Potter and Black were the two oldest, richest and highest ranking houses of Magical Britain, but more to the point, the Head Goblin of Gringotts always managed the House of Potter's affairs personally as the House of Potter was very important to Gringotts and the Goblin Nations). Once Harry and Sirius had been accepted by their family magics and had taken up their titles, including Harry being accepted as Heir Apparent to the House of Black, Griselda was accepted as Regent and Legal Guardian for Harry and Saul was accepted as Steward for the House of Black and its Associated Houses and Families, Gringott started asking Hermione questions about her family. After about half an hour of asking questions and doing computer searches (which Hermione was excitedly explaining to the others because she was the only person in the room other than Gringott who really knew what a computer was), Gringott used the intercom to call for something to be brought up from a vault. Amelia, Griselda and Saul looked at each other when he said the vault numbers, because they were definitely pre-Wizengamot vault numbers, which would make the Houses they belonged to at least Ancient.

When a goblin delivered three small boxes to Gringott, he opened them and then pushed them across his desk towards Hermione. "Try these on Miss Granger, I believe you will find this quite interesting..."

Hermione just looked at the rings, obviously afraid so he expanded on what he'd said. "Do not be afraid, if I am wrong, nothing will happen and we will just return the rings to their vaults, but if I am correct, you will be accepted as Baroness Granger, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Dagworth Granger and its Associated Houses and Families, and owner of all their rights and assets. The last time there was a Head of the House of Dagworth Granger was over two hundred years ago. I was only a child then, but I can see many similarities between yourself and the last Baron Dagworth Granger and I am confident that you will be accepted by the Dagworth Granger family magic... And from what I discovered when I was tracing your lineage back, I believe that you may also be accepted as Head of the Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."

Harry squeezed her hand comfortingly and she gave him a look, asking whether she should do this, but he just indicated that it was her choice to make. Feeling bold, she pulled him in for a kiss and then picked up the Dagworth-Granger box, holding it out to Harry. He got the message and took the ring out of the box, slipping it onto the ring finger of the slightly shaky hand she extended to him. When the jolt of magic and the rush of knowledge into her head subsided, she stopped clinging to him and swatted him on the arm. "You could have warned me Harry!"

Everyone else in the room was laughing, but Sirius decided to help Harry out, because he could already see that this girl meant a lot to him. "No one ever truly knows what will happen when someone is accepted by their family magic Hermione, because every House is different, but if it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure that you didn't get anything like the jolt that Harry and I got when we did, because our Houses are over two and a half thousand years old."

Amelia spoke up then. "Be that as it may Sirius, Miss Granger would have still gotten a fair jolt because going by its vault number, her house is at least five or six hundred years old."

Gringott chuckled. "The House of Dagworth Granger has been Noble via the first Baron Dagworth for nearly six hundred and fifty years now, but the family goes back over eight hundred years via the original Grangier Clan line, as they came across from Brittany soon after the Norman Conquest…. I apologise Baroness Granger, it was I who should have warned you that your House has over eight hundred years of family magic and knowledge and therefore there would have been an impact of some sort. You just reminded me so much of Baron Dagworth Granger and I was excited about welcoming the new Duke Potter Peverell and his mate into our world….."

* * *

The office was filled with a mixture of shrill "_**What?**_"s from the teenagers and laughter from the adults, but when they settled down, Amelia decided to have some fun with Harry. "I was under the impression that you were a wizard of honour and nobility Duke Potter Peverell. Am I to understand that you have merely been leading this poor witch on, taking your enjoyment from her without intending to do the honourable thing?"

They were all rather surprised as they were reminded of what he had in his head now when he snapped at her in a voice that belied his age. "Do not imply that! You know damned well that I have no intention of leading Hermione on! When I woke up a couple of hours ago after living in another time and place for what felt like months in my head, the first thing I saw was the sight I most wanted to see in _this_ world, Hermione, so I kissed her. I'm hoping that me kissing her and her kissing me back like that means we're now boyfriend and girlfriend, but I'm pretty sure that that's all either of us are ready for at this point. We're only thirteen for God's sake, we're not old enough to be mates!"

Hermione hugged him and buried her face in his chest, so they could hardly hear what she was saying. "Yes Harry, I care about you too and I _do_ want us to be boyfriend and girlfriend, but I'm _not_ ready to be known as your mate yet…. My parents would lock me in my room and never let me out if they heard anyone calling me that!"

While they were standing there, holding each other, Sirius, Amelia, Griselda, Saul and Gringott were carrying on a silent conversation. When the two faced the others again, Amelia spoke. "Harry, Hermione, I'm sorry, the two of you are so grown up we honestly forget that you are just thirteen, well nearly fourteen in Hermione's case, and you don't know that much about this world except for the knowledge that Harry has acquired from Tom Riddle. But your ignorance of this world presents a very real danger, especially for you Hermione, because there are all too many people who would jump at the chance to prey on you while you're vulnerable like this. I would like to offer to become Regent and Legal Guardian in Magical Britain for you Hermione, just as Griselda has for Harry, to protect you from those who wish to take advantage of you…."

Hermione said "Yes Please" quietly, so they went through the steps for Amelia to become her Regent and Guardian, then Amelia spoke again.

"I'd also like you to think about another thing that will give you more protection. I don't need an answer here and now, but I do ask that you both give it careful consideration and tell me what you decide as soon as you do. Something that is quite common between the wealthier and more powerful houses of the Magical World, which you two have just become, is betrothal contracts. When they are set up between ethical houses, they are primarily a way of preventing less ethical houses trapping their sons and daughters into marriages by underhanded means. Susan and Neville Longbottom were entered into betrothal contracts with each other by their parents when they were barely toddlers. To the best of my knowledge they are no more than friends and if and when either of them finds someone else they wish to marry, the Houses of Bones and Longbottom will cancel their betrothal contracts so that they may do so. What I would like you to think about, Hermione and Harry, is giving Griselda and I permission to enter the two of you into the same type of betrothal contracts with each other so that you will be protected until if and when you find someone else you'd like to marry…."

Sirius piped up then to remind them that they would need to factor Harry's titles as the Heir Apparent of the House of Black into those betrothal contracts as well.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, because when Amelia put it like that it made a lot of sense, and Tom Riddle's memories were telling Harry about many young witches and more than a few young wizards who's houses had been milked dry that way through the war, and far worse than that had happened to many of the witches involved. Harry held his hand out to Hermione and they went off to a corner by themselves, he used Riddle's knowledge to wandlessly erect a privacy ward around them and they talked for fifteen or twenty minutes about what he knew, then he cancelled the ward and they came back to ask Amelia and Griselda to set up the betrothal contracts. Before that could be done, they had to test Gringott's supposition that she was also Baroness Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but none of them were surprised to see that he was, Amelia became Hermione's Regent for those houses as well. While they were at Gringotts, Gringott sent runners to their vaults to get their Houses' betrothal rings. Like their House rings and Harry's Heir's ring, they'd normally be kept out of phase with their world, but they could be called into being at any time if needed.

Gringott raised another point when they went to set up the betrothal contracts between Harry and Hermione, the fact that Harry already had legitimate betrothal contracts in place with Luna and Daphne Greengrass (plus one that Dumbledore and Molly Weasley had tried to organise between Harry and Ginny Weasley, but that had never been accepted because Dumbledore never had any right to accept anything for the House of Potter and the then Head of the House of Weasley, Arthur's Uncle, had been under the imperius curse when he accepted it so the Weasley Family Magic wouldn't accept it). Harry, Luna and Daphe's mothers had been best friends at Hogwarts and they'd all gone into the Department of Mysteries together, so when their children were born it was only natural for betrothal contracts to be made between them to protect their houses, especially with Harry being Heir to two Duchies. It was agreed that the Greengrasses would not have ignored their responsibilities to Harry unless they'd had all memory of them removed, and were probably under compulsions to ignore any mention of a link between their houses, so Gringott summoned Lord and Lady Greengrass to Gringotts immediately. While the Pure-Blood _Lords_ believed themselves to be above acknowledging lesser creatures like Goblins, those who had originated in the age old Druid Houses and Families who had guided Magical Britain from its inception knew the true worth of the People, so Cyrus and Celeste Greengrass appeared before the Head Goblin as soon as they could make themselves presentable. They agreed to be scanned by Gringotts' healers, and half an hour later they were _furious_, itching to get to Hogwarts and tear that old bastard limb from limb, but they were masters of Noble House politics and agreed to bide their time until the best chance to spring the traps they were advised of arose. They had no problem with amending the betrothal contracts between Harry and Daphne to refer to the House of Black, rather than the House of Potter, which left Griselda and Amelia free to accept betrothal contracts between Hermione and Harry for the Houses of Potter, Gryffindor and Slytherin.

* * *

Harry had shared some information about what members of the House of Black had been doing for Lord Voldemort, so Sirius decided to use his power as the new Head of the House of Black to start levelling the playing field, calling for the disillusion of the marriages of Voldemort's followers, with the return to the House of Black of absolutely everything that was part of their dowry or wedding gifts or earned from that…. and added penalties enacted for bringing shame on the House of Black, retroactively if they were dead….. and then cast every member of the House of Black who had ever served Lord Voldemort, calling back everything that rightly belonged to the House of Black from them or their heirs.

Of course, his first two targets were his _dear_ cousins Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, and he rubbed salt into the wound by giving their sister Andromeda (who had never been cast out as most of the House of Black believed) the titles he took from them. The beauty of this was that, while they may not know who the new Head of the House of Black was yet, most of them would know what had happened when they lost their family magic and any of them who understood the rules of their world would know that there was absolutely nothing that they could do about it.

Watching Sirius cackling as he did what he could to destroy any of Voldemorts' followers who were associated with the House of Black in any way reminded Harry of something else he'd seen in Voldemort's memories, and he gave Gringott all the details needed to empty the vaults of everyone who had been a Death Eater, whether they had been marked or not, or key supporter of Voldemort. One of the things Voldemort had demanded of his followers was unlimited access to all their vaults and assets, and Harry had everything he needed to make use of that in his head.

While he was at it, he gave Amelia details of every one of Voldemort's followers who were part of the Ministry of Magic, starting with those in the DMLE and Department of Mysteries, so she was going to be having a busy day as she looked for ways to disappear as many of them as possible into the Department of Mysteries' holding cells.

With that, Harry and Sirius were sent off to one of the goblins' runic time chambers to get all the damage to their bodies corrected and then Harry used a glamour to make himself look like he had previously before they thanked Gringott for his time and returned to St Mungo's, where they split up. Harry, Hermione, Susan and Poppy Pomfrey returned to Hogwarts' Infirmary while Saul and Sirius went to the Department of Mysteries, with a detour to the Wizengamot chamber to use the Stone of Truth (a large crystal that the magic of the Druids Council and subsequent Wizards Council and Wizengamot were anchored to, it allowed the magic of the Wizengamot to interface with the family magic of those touching it to determine their standing and voting rights in the Wizengamot) to cancel any and all voting rights for the House of Black and its Associated Houses and Families and assigning all voting proxies to its new Steward Baron Saul Croaker, Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Croaker. Griselda and went with them and while they were there, Griselda used her authority as Regent for the Houses of Potter and Peverell and Head of the House of Marchbanks and their Associated Houses and Families to do the same with their voting rights, but she kept all their voting rights herself. Amelia did the same with the Houses of Bones, Dagworth-Granger, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and their Associated Houses and Families and Saul did the same with the House of Croaker and its Associated Houses and Families (as far as they knew, the Houses of Marchbanks, Bones and Croaker were properly locked down but after what they'd heard about Dumbledore's machinations they decided to make sure). They also sent out word to their trusted friends and associates, advising them to come in and do the same as they'd just done to ensure that they knew who held the voting rights for their houses.

The holders of voting proxies were not advised when those the votes belonged to changed their proxies, so Dumbledore and the Dark factions didn't realise how many votes they were losing as Heads and Regents of Houses quietly visited the Wizengamot chamber to purge all existing voting rights for their houses, then reset them as required. In most cases the compulsions, imperiouses and intimidation that were used to gain their voting proxies had been long forgotten, quite often with the assistance of memory charms, so they hadn't realised that they had only been casting a fraction of the votes that belonged to their Houses while someone else was using their votes for agendas that they quite often did not support. With this new practice of cancelling _all_ voting rights and then assigning them to those they trusted to hold voting rights for their Houses, they were reclaiming the power of their houses.


	2. His Master's Voice

**The depiction of Snape in this chapter is probably the lightest shade of dark you'll see for him from me, but most of the Marauders don't come off too well.**

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

Luckily Professor McGonagall had a free period and was in her office when they returned to Hogwarts, and Poppy went with them. "Professor McGonagall?"

"Mister Potter, I'm glad to see you back with us and looking so well, as I am sure they told you, you had all your friends quite worried…." She looked at the group. "But why are you here in my office?"

"Well I am told that it was only three days out here but it felt like I spent months in the world of one of Hermione's novels that she loaned me to read over the holidays..."

"Living in the world of a novel? Which one, may I ask?"

"Pride and Prejudice."

Minerva McGonagall was raised in the Muggle world and had been a well read young lady. "Oh dear!"

Harry quirked a smile. "Indeed! Although living as part of the aristocracy in a Regency Era fantasy world for months will hopefully help prepare me for taking my place as the Head of a Most Noble and Most Ancient House in Magical Britain, as the expectations of this society are much the same."

That stopped her, but she nodded slowly. "You may have a point there Mister Potter…." Then she realised what he'd said. "Oh no! You have not been given any preparation to take your place as Head of the House of Potter!"

With that, Harry turned grim. "No, I have not! In fact knowledge of my place in Magical Britain has been deliberately withheld from me, along with my fortune and all of my rights! Professor McGonagall, when I awoke this morning, I was missing something significant, the soul fragment that Voldemort left in me the night he killed my parents. I was also missing most of the bindings, memory and willpower blocks and compulsion and confundus charms that _Professor_ Dumbledore placed on me before he _knowingly_ dumped me on the doorstep of the only people my parents' wills, which he had witnessed, prohibited me being given to _with_ Voldemort's soul fragment in my head!"

Minerva was shaking her head. "No! Albus couldn't do such a thing!"

So Harry just looked at Poppy, "Madam Pomfrey, could you tell her what he did to you, please?"

Poppy nodded and proceeded to tell her what the healers at St Mungo's had found and removed from her, and Harry. By the end of her story, Minerva was just shaking her head, unable to describe her horror at what she was being forced to accept.

They took that opportunity to take her to St Mungo's and get Dumbledore's manipulations removed from her, then Harry performed the same secrecy charms on her as he'd done with the others to prevent Dumbledore discovering what she knew.

When they returned to Hogwarts, she was given copies of the Potters' wills and the St Mungo's reports of the damage done to Harry to read. The only levity was when Harry suggested that when Ron Weasley came to her, complaining that his rat had disappeared, she tell him that he should take more care of his pet, then pretend to remember that rats were not on the list of permitted pets and tell him that they would look for his rat, but when it was found it would be sent it home to his parents. Harry smiled before he said the punchline. "It shouldn't be too hard to fake a tracking spell that leads us to the owlery, where we will find blood and rat fur and a rat's tail spread about so it looks like the owls tore Scabbers apart as they fought over him."

Minerva frowned at him. "Don't you think that that's a little cruel Harry?"

"Not half as cruel as what that lying traitor and his mother and sister have been to everyone else! As I said, once the memory blocks and confundus charms were removed, I regained my photographic memory, and every one of their betrayals and cruel taunts has come back to me! This started before I even got onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters, because Dumbledore made sure that Hagrid didn't tell me how to get onto the platform to prime me up for Molly Weasley to come bustling through the Muggle side of Kings Cross Station talking loudly about Muggles and Platform Nine and Three Quarters and take me under her wing. Then Ron came along, asking if he could sit with me on the Hogwarts Express because everywhere else was full, and started gushing about my scar and fame. He was quite rude to Hermione when she came in, trying to help Neville find his toad, she may have been a little bossy but she was trying to help another first year and there was no excuse for his rudeness. That is pretty much how it's been since then, he said such horrid things to Hermione after she tried to help him in Charms that first Halloween that she ran off to cry in the girls' toilets, and you know what happened because of that!"

Minerva nodded grimly as the sight of the three of them in the wrecked toilets with the troll flashed into her head.

"He has tried to drive off Hermione, Neville and anyone else who looks like becoming my friend, and usually he's nasty enough to succeed. Since she started at Hogwarts, his sister Ginny has joined him in that, but she generally concentrates on trying to make sure that all other girls stay away from me because she wholeheartedly supports her mother's contention that she will be Duchess Potter as soon as she's old enough to get married… I don't know whether she knows about the illegal betrothal contract between the two of us that Dumbledore and her mother made up within a week of my parents being killed, but I'm sure she would try to have it enforced if she did…. It will be amusing to see her and her mother's reactions when they find out about my _real_ betrothed..."

"Your _What_?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Professor McGonagall, we forgot to mention that, didn't we? Please allow me to present Baroness Hermione Granger. Head of the Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and Noble and Ancient House of Dagworth Granger... and one of my betrothed."

Hermione, Susan and Poppy couldn't help giggling at Minerva's shocked expression at that news, but Harry remembered something else.

"And under the Hogwarts rule that allows students to change electives in the first month if we discover that we aren't suited to them, I am hereby formally advising you that I wish to drop the useless elective of Divination and take up Ancient Runes and Arithmancy instead, may I have a quill and parchment so that I can put this in writing as required, please Professor McGonagall?"

Minerva quickly pushed the requested writing materials across to him, as she had been disappointed that Lily and James' son would choose something as useless as Divination in the first place and was much happier to see him following them in serious studies. She knew that Albus would try and stop him, but as Harry had said, it was every student's right to do this. While she was actually looking forward to seeing the old fool try and use that bogus claim of being Harry's Guardian to prevent him doing this, because he wouldn't be able to override Harry's right to make his own choices as an emancipated Head of a Most Noble and Most Ancient House, she realised that they would all be better off if he didn't discover that until after Sirius Black had been exonerated, so she made the necessary arrangements quietly.

* * *

By lunch time, Minerva had made arrangements with the Ancient Runes and Arithmancy professors for Harry to be added to their classes and for the loan of whatever text books and materials he'd need until he could get his own, she didn't bother saying anything to Trelawney because the sot probably wouldn't even notice that he was missing. She handed the materials to Harry along with his revised schedule and left him talking to his friends, hearing Ronald Weasley loudly demanding to know what was going on as she went to walk away.

Harry looked at Weasley impatiently. "While I was trapped in my head after that dementor tried to kiss me on the Hogwarts Express, I realised that I was making a mockery of my parents' sacrifice by not making the most of the opportunity they have given me. I refuse to dishonour their memory any longer so from now on I will be taking my education seriously and putting the proper effort into learning what I need to know. We've been forced to face life threatening situations time and time again over the last two years which I've only survived by dumb luck and I've finally come to accept that my luck is bound to run out sooner or later if I don't make more of an effort."

"But what about me?"

"What about you? You can do what you want, my decision about what to do with my life has nothing to do with you. You can either join me in trying to make something of yourself or you can find other friends to slack off with…. But I warn you, if you try and interfere with me trying to make proper use of my time here, the consequences won't be pretty!"

"You're supposed to be _my_ mate, not that Mudblood whore's! Open your eyes for Merlin's sake, can't you see that she is just trying to turn you into a lousy bookworm like her so that you'll lose all your friends!"

Twelve years of abuse had taught Harry to use whatever he could when he struck back, even if that normally resulted in more abuse. He hadn't realised how much stronger he was after all his ailments were fixed that morning though so Ron landed on the floor a five or six feet away with a broken nose and all his teeth smashed in after Harry's elbow smashed into his face. Even the shock of being hit wasn't enough to prevent Ron registering the menace in Harry's cold voice as he hissed.

"Never call her anything like that again you slimy bastard! You're worse than Malfoy, at least he has the excuse of his father feeding him that sort of shite all the time! Forget about me being your mate Weasley, and stay away from me and my friends unless you want another lesson in what happens to those who attack the people I care about!"

Minerva had heard everything and she had to cover up a satisfied smile, as that should put paid to any attempts to reinstate Weasley in Harry's group of friends. She schooled her expression and sternly asked. "What is going on here Mister Potter?"

Harry looked up with a brief smirk before he schooled his expression too. "Mister Weasley took umbrage when I informed him that I had realised that I was dishonouring my parents' sacrifice as I was wasting the opportunities they gave me by slacking off and not taking my studies seriously Professor McGonagall. He indicated that he regarded my statement that from now on I would be putting a serious effort into learning everything I could as an abandonment of him so I told him that he could either join me in putting in a proper effort to learn or find other friends to slack off with. At that point he crossed the line though because he said 'You're supposed to be _my_ mate, not that Mudblood whore's! Open your eyes for Merlin's sake, can't you see that she is just trying to turn you into a lousy bookworm like her so that you'll lose all your friends!' He can say what he likes about me, after twelve years of nothing but abuse I'm used to it, but I will _not_ allow him to drag the only person who has cared for and supported me into something that she had no part of and attack her with those foul names, so I hit him, and told him to stay away from me and my friends from now on."

Minerva nodded. "I agree that what he said was inexcusable Mister Potter, but you cannot go hitting anyone who upsets you, that will be ten points from Gryffindor and two nights' detention with me..."

Harry just nodded. "Yes Professor."

She looked down at Weasley, who was laying on the floor and moaning loudly, trying to get sympathy.

"And you, Mister Weasley... you should be ashamed of yourself! Dragging an innocent student into something that she had nothing to do with and calling her those foul names. That will be twenty points from Gryffindor and a week's detention with Mister Filch, and I will be writing to your parents about your inexcusable behaviour!"

"_M__y _behad'r? What about _him_? He hid me! He boke my nobe and baffed my teeth in!"

"If you had bothered to listen, you would know that Mister Potter has also cost Gryffindor points and has gained detentions for his actions, but the fact remains that _his_ actions were purely in response to _your_ disgusting attack on someone else who was no part of what you were discussing with Mister Potter, and for that matter what Mister Potter decides to do with his life is none of your business either. If you had taken him up on his offer to make more of an effort with your studies you might have been able to do more than barely scrapping through this year. In fact I think I should include _that_ in the letter to your parents as well, Merlin knows that you have no excuse to do so poorly, even your brothers who spend far more time causing mayhem than they do on their school work have done much better than you!"

The twins made a show of looking offended at that and stage whispered. "Keep that quiet please Professor! We have a reputation to protect you know!"

* * *

She gave Ron a withering look and turned to stalk away, but paused as she was passing the twins to say quietly. "I will only agree to keep your true abilities quiet if you tell me the truth about why you try to cover them up. As Mister Potter has said, his parents were two of the best students at Hogwarts when they were here, but his father was a key part of a group of pranksters who were worse than you two, the Marauders. You only have until I write your parents about your brother to convince me that you have a good reason to cover up your abilities so I would suggest that you come now."

They looked at each other in panic and grabbed their bags, scrabbling to their feet to race after her, their plans would be ruined if their mother found out that they had the ability to do as well as any of their brothers!

Twenty minutes later, the twins were listening to the language Minerva was using about Molly Prewett in shock… And wondering how they could find out what their mother had done to earn the name 'the Harlot of Hogwarts'…. When Minerva had herself under control, she addressed them.

"Alright, this is my offer Messers Weasley. I will talk to your teachers, other than Professor Snape, I will have to organise something else for potions. We will in effect be running a second set of records 'off the books' for you, so you will have to sit any important exams and tests twice and hand in two copies of any important assignments. Your other teachers and I will only be willing to make the effort for this if you do your utmost to excel in the tests and assignments for the 'off the book' records, and the tests and assignments for those subjects you are not officially studying will be part of those records as well. If you don't hold up your end, we will leave you to reap what you have sown.…. Surely you two are bright enough to understand how much what you are doing will harm your prospects... Even if you do go into business for yourselves, no one worthwhile is going to be willing to collaborate with two boys who have failed most subjects in their OWLs. This way, you can use the official results to avoid being forced to join the Ministry as you planned but you can use your second set of results to open doors with the people you _do_ want to work with. So what's your decision, are you prepared to put in the extra effort that will be required to get the results you should be getting without your mother knowing or shall I wash my hands of you?"

The twins looked at each other and nodded, Fred responded as the eldest by twenty minutes. "Yes, we will gratefully take this opportunity to gain a second set of real results Professor McGonagall. We don't know how to tell you how much we appreciate this. We've tried to tell our parents that we can't stand the idea of working for the Ministry but our mother just ignores anything we say and our father gives in to her on everything, that's why Bill and Charlie gave up on jobs they wanted in Magical Britain and went overseas. Well it's worked out okay for Bill, but Charlie had to give up on his chance to play for Puddlemere United to get away from Mum….."

* * *

"Professor, can you tell us more about what you were saying about Harry's Dad being one of the Marauders? You see we've found something the Marauders made and now we're thinking that perhaps it should rightfully be his."

Minerva pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Merlin, that's all I need! Though perhaps he deserves something to counter everything that has been thrown at him…. This thing you've found, it won't harm him or get him into trouble will it?"

Fred shook his head. "No Ma'am, if anything it will help him stay out of trouble."

She fixed him with a piercing look and then nodded as she decided to trust them. "Very well, James Potter and Sirius Black were the ringleaders of the Marauders. I have recently heard that they went by the nicknames of Prongs and Padfoot and there were two other members…. One was Peter Pettigrew, who went by the name of Wormtail, and for now we'll just refer to the last one by his nickname, Moony…."

She stopped, as the twins were looking at each other, carrying on a conversation that no-one else could understand.

Eventually, Fred turned back to her. "Professor, did Peter Pettigrew have a son? The reason we ask is that we've seen that name around while we've been here at Hogwarts, but we saw something in the paper over the holidays about him being killed by Sirius Black back in Nineteen Eighty One."

Minerva looked at the two trouble makers for a while and then made a decision and shook her head.

"No, as far as I know Pettigrew doesn't have a son, Merlin, I hope not, one like him was quite enough! May I ask where you saw that name?"

They looked at each other and then George pulled out a ratty old piece of parchment, opened it and placed it on the desk then tapped it with his wand and said. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

With that, lines began appearing all over the parchment which grew into a map of Hogwarts, then legends appeared identifying locations, dots all over the map (many of them moving), and finally names to identify those dots. George tapped his finger on a spot on the map that showed their three names in Minerva's office and said. "That's us there."

Minerva surprised them with an unladylike snort. "It is so nice to actually know which of you I am talking to for once… George…. Merlin, it's no wonder they got away with so much if they had something like this at their disposal…."

She looked up at them. "Would I be correct in the assumption that the most common place you saw the name Peter Pettigrew was in the Gryffindor boys' dorms?"

That got her amazed looks as they nodded.

"I am going to let you in on a secret boys, but first you will have to agree to have your memories of what I tell you protected until after the current business is done."

They fell over themselves to agree, there was no way they were going to miss out on this!

"Sirius Black did _not_ kill Peter Pettigrew in Nineteen Eight One, Pettigrew faked his death and framed Black for killing him and thirteen muggles to get him sent to Azkaban. You see James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were all animagi, and Pettigrew has apparently been hiding in his animagus form of a rat for the last eleven or twelve years, a rat called Scabbers…."

"What? He's been hiding as our brothers' pet all that time?"

"It would appear so. Pettigrew was captured this morning and is being held in a hidden location until they can arrange for a trial for him and Black, and that is why we need to block any chance of people seeing your memories of what we've discussed here until after the trials, because there are some very powerful people who will do whatever they have to to prevent the truth coming out… an innocent wizard has already spent twelve years in Azkaban because of that."

They nodded and Fred said. "We understand Professor, and we're ready for you to block the memories."

She surprised them with a smirk. "Oh I don't know enough about the mind arts to do that, no, the one who did it to me will be doing this…. Where is Mister Potter at the moment?"

They thought she was joking, she _had_ to be, but George looked at the map. "He's just down the hall."

"Could you go get him please Mister Weasley? If Miss Granger is with him she can come too, she knows about all of this."

George shook his head in confusion, but quickly confirmed where Harry was and ducked out to get him, and Hermione.

Ten minutes later, Fred and George had the same protections to prevent anyone finding out what was happening from them and they presented Harry with the Marauders' Map. Minerva also explained the agreement she'd just made with the twins and Harry told them about how he had access to most of Voldemort's knowledge in his head, promising to help them (and Hermione of course) with studying to get the best possible results for their 'off the books' OWLs.

Then the bell rang to announce the end of lunch so they headed off to class.

* * *

Harry and Hermione's first lesson after lunch was Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Harry didn't know what to think about this year's DADA teacher, as Remus Lupin had been the last of the four Marauders. He was the only one who wasn't an animagus, in fact he was the reason Harry's Dad and Uncle Siri had decided to learn how to become animagi because he was a werewolf. Harry didn't have an issue with Lupin's 'furry little problem', as his parents had referred to Lupin's condition, like them he accepted that Lupin was not responsible for having the affliction and understood that he was only dangerous on nights of the full moon, when by all accounts he did everything he could to ensure he didn't endanger anyone else….. No, Harry's issue with Lupin was the fact that he apparently believed that the sun shone out of Dumbledore's arse and he could do no wrong, so he did anything and everything Dumbledore asked of him without question.

His parents and Uncle Siri had done everything they could to make Lupin feel loved and wanted as part of their little family, he was supposed to become Harry's second Godfather but a week before the date that had been arranged for the rituals to be performed at Gringotts (the only place where it was legal to perform rituals of that nature), Dumbledore had asked him to go off and talk to the werewolf packs on the Continent and he hadn't made any effort to even get the trip to the Continent delayed a week or two, he just told them he'd have to do the ritual some other time and left. Harry's parents had felt betrayed that he would fob off something so important as Harry's Godfather ritual without making any effort to honour the commitment he'd made to them, so he was dropped from consideration as a Godparent and their friends the Longbottoms, who's son Neville was born a few hours earlier than Harry, became Harry's second set of Godparents, with James and Lily becoming Neville's Godparents at the same time. Auntie Pan still became Harry's Godmother in the rituals but she was the one who suggested that the Longbottoms be given priority over her because the House of Longbottom was a lot more powerful than the House of Lovegood, so they could protect Harry better…. That reminded Harry that he needed to reconnect with Neville, as his Godbrother, and Luna, as his Godsister, and explain to both of them about how he'd had all knowledge of their relationships blocked until the dementor broke the bonds on him….

Which was another bone of contention he had with Lupin, not only had he made no attempt to contact him until his master brought him back, with the obvious intention of using him to control Harry him as Harry saw now, and hadn't identified himself as a friend of his parents on the Hogwarts Express…. He'd wasted so much time uselessly _telling_ the dementor to back off after it forced its way into their compartment and came at Harry that it would have almost certainly been too late for Harry by the time he finally made the effort to drive it off with a patronus charm if Harry hadn't had Voldemort's soul fragment in his head to be sucked out before his own soul…. No, he wasn't inclined to give Lupin much leeway here, he'd see what he was like as a teacher but he'd need a very compelling reason for it to ever become anything more than that.

Hermione was aghast when Harry filled her in on his history with Lupin and what he believed the reason for him being there was, but they had a win in that Harry managed to snag Neville and get him to share a desk with them, and Neville happily accepted his explanation of what had happened. Neville was relieved actually, as he said he thought that Harry's silence before had been because he didn't want to have anything to do with him when he found out how weak a wizard he was.

They were pleasantly surprised by how capable a teacher Lupin was, granted the bar hadn't been set very high with it not being in Voldemort's interests for the students to learn anything they might use against his followers when he returned and Lockhart not being able to master anything but obliviate and grooming spells, but Lupin was knowledgeable enough in the subject matter and fairly good at imparting that knowledge on the students. Harry's good mood disappeared when Neville got his wand out for an exercise though. "Neville, why are you using Uncle Frank's wand, and why hasn't anyone picked up on the fact that that's almost certainly the reason you've been having trouble casting spells? Haven't Professor Flitwick or McGonagall done anything to look into the problem?"

"What are you talking about Harry? Gran have me Dad's wand because she said that having a strong wand would help me become a stronger wizard… and the professors haven't done anything because there isn't anything to be done, I'm just weak."

He stepped back as Harry hissed at him angrily. "No, you _aren't! Damnit!_ That makes at least two more we have to find a way to get into a position where we can remove whatever he has been done to them…. Neville, we're going to see Professor McGonagall after class, I need to go as well because this wand and I don't work as well since I got rid of my passenger."

He could see that Neville didn't understand what he was saying, but he agreed to go and see Professor McGonagall with him.

They hit a snag at the end of the class though, because Lupin asked him to stay for a minute. Lupin was a bit put out when Harry nodded tersely, but asked Neville and Hermione to wait for him outside, he wouldn't be long.

When Lupin started waffling on about being Harry's parents' friend, Harry cut him off. "Sorry Professor, but my friends are waiting for me outside, was there something specific you wanted to talk to me about or did you just want to chat about my dead parents? If so, that's a painful subject for me that I'd rather not have dredged up."

He could see that Lupin wanted to take him to task for talking to him like that but he couldn't come up with anything to beat that argument so he took a different tack. "I'm sorry Harry, I didn't want to bring up a painful subject, I just wanted to let you know that I'm still here for you as your Uncle Moony..."

"_Uncle_ isn't a term that evokes any good memories for me either, because the only one I've ever known as _Uncle_ is my Aunt's fat pig of a husband who continually verbally and physically abuses me, starves me and treats me like a slave so I'd thank you not to bring that subject up again either, now as I said, my friends are waiting so was there something specific you wanted to discuss Sir, or can I go?"

Lupin's expression hardened, as this wasn't going the way it was supposed to and he wasn't looking forward to telling Professor Dumbledore that Harry wasn't being at all receptive to the idea of them getting closer again, because after all that was the main reason he was hired. "I overheard you talking to Mister Longbottom about problems with your wands and you were saying something about someone interfering with people, what was that about?"

"Eavesdropping on students' _private_ conversations Professor? I will have to report that to Professor McGonagall…. But if you _overheard_ that much, you would have heard that Neville and I are planning to take the matter to our House Mistress, which is why he and Hermione are waiting for me outside. Our House Mistress is the proper person to deal with the issues we're having so we will be taking it up with her. Now may I go… Sir?"

Lupin angrily waved at the door. "Yes, go!" and Harry didn't give him a chance to change his mind, scampering out straight away. Hermione and Neville didn't say anything when he just grabbed Hermione's hand and snapped "Come on, we won't have much time to fill Professor McGonagall in on what's happening now."

* * *

Hermione asked him what Lupin wanted as they hurried down the hall and Harry scowled. "He was trying to play the 'I'm your Uncle Moony, I was a good friend of your parents and they'd want me to look after you' card, so he got pissed off when I told him that my dead parents and Uncles were both painful subjects for me and I didn't want to talk about them. Then he tried to find out what I was talking about when I was talking to you and Neville about the wands and the old bastard's interference. I got out of that by saying that that was a matter for us to take up with our House Mistress, and that I would be raising the fact that he was eavesdropping on students' private conversations. I didn't mention that he'd used the heightened senses of a werewolf to eavesdrop, but Professor McGonagall can do that…."

Neville squeaked at that. "Professor Lupin is a _werewolf_?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, he was turned by Fenir Greyback when he was five, and Greyback told Voldemort that from what Lupin's father said before he killed him, Dumbledore had set him up to take the very public stand against werewolves that led to his family being attacked in reprisal. Anyway, Dumbledore let Lupin be the only werewolf to ever attend Hogwarts, presumably to mould him into the dedicated servant he has become. In the seven years he was at Hogwarts, there was only one incident where he was a danger to anyone, and from Snape's complaints to Voldemort, Dumbledore set that up, dropping enough hints for him to be able to goad Uncle Siri into telling him how to get into the tunnel leading to the Shrieking Shack where Lupin locked himself away for the full moon. It all worked out just as Dumbledore had planned, as he got himself devoted servants in Lupin, Uncle Siri and Dad, and Death Eater spies in Snape and Pettigrew. Snape could have been killed or turned if it went wrong and Lupin would have been executed if that happened, but I'll bet that the only thing Dumbledore would have regretted if that happened would be the delays and wasted effort because he'd have to start over."

Neville just looked at him. "How do you know all this Harry?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't tell you…. Good thing I didn't say anything about this in there with the werewolf listening actually, but I was effectively kissed by that dementor on the Hogwarts Express because Lupin wasted time trying to _talk_ to the damned thing before he scared it off with a patronus. But the thing is, part of Voldemort's soul got lodged in my scar when whatever he tried to do to me after he killed my parents backfired on him and it stayed there until the dementor kissed me on the train. Anyway, it was mainly Voldemort's soul fragment that got sucked out before Lupin decided to do something and that broke the memory blocks and other things on me, so I spent three days locked in my head sorting out all the memories I had, because while Voldemort's soul fragment had been sucked out, most of his memories and knowledge were left with me. A lot of that is things I'd rather not know, but Tom Riddle, which was Voldemort's real name, was one of the most successful students Hogwarts ever had and he didn't stop studying when he left so there's more in his memories than most of the professors at Hogwarts know… That's something else I was meaning to talk to you about Neville, as you heard at lunch, I've changed my electives to Ancient Runes and Arithmancy because Divination is a waste of time and I think you should too, because they'll be a lot more use to you…."

"I couldn't do that Harry, I'm not smart like Hermione, or you."

"Stop putting yourself down Neville, there's a lot more to you than you think at the moment. Getting you a proper wand will help boost your confidence, but you don't have to be a genius to succeed in Runes and Arithmancy, you just need to put the work in. Professor McGonagall has convinced the twins to make a serious effort off the books so that they'll have the OWLs they need to make the business they want to start a success and I'll be coaching them..." He added "_And_ Hermione" when she went to say something, "So it won't be any trouble to coach you as well, please think about it, as I believe it would be good for you."

Neville still looked dubious, but he nodded. "Alright Harry, I'll think about it."

They reached Minerva's office at that point so they quickly explained the situation to her, asking her to contact Amelia Bones to get them a trusted escort who wouldn't be identified as DMLE to take them to an off the books wand maker off Knockturn Alley that Voldemort knew about after class to get wands made for them without the trace that were properly matched to them after class. He also said that he wanted Hermione to come and get a proper wand and suggested that she ask Madam Bones about Susan coming as well because Voldemort had information about Dumbledore manipulating Garrick Ollivander into holding people back by giving them mismatched wands, and raised the matter of Neville's Gran, Professor Flitwick and others who appeared to have been manipulated by Dumbledore. With that, they ran off to Potions, their next class, because Lupin had taken up much of the free time they had and they didn't want to give Snape any excuse to punish them.

Hermione paired up with Daphne Greengrass to avoid being stuck with Ron Weasley, and to try and have a quiet word with her about what Harry had remembered, because they'd agreed on the way to class that Harry would pair up with Neville to try and get him off to a good start for the school year. They were hoping that Snape would back off Neville a little and give him a chance in Potions if he didn't mess up.… They weren't holding out a lot of hope of course, as it was Snape after all, but having him go after an easier target like Weasley or Finnegan would work for them.

Snape hovered over them for a while, but he stopped short of outright sabotage of their potions and gave up when it wasn't throwing them off so they both managed to hand in potions that should have been 'O's and he'd have a hard time justifying anything below 'EE'. Harry made sure that Snape saw them putting extra vials of their potions in their bags and then looked straight at him to ensure that he got the message…. 'We have proof of what level the potions we submitted were so I expect them to be graded properly'... He got a grudging nod of respect from Snape for the well played point before they left.

* * *

Minerva was waiting for them when they ran upstairs to the ground floor, and they headed to the Infirmary to pick up Susan and head off to Diagon Alley via the dedicated Floo to St Mungo's, as that was the only way out of Hogwarts that Dumbledore couldn't monitor. They crossed paths with Luna Lovegood along the way and Harry stepped aside to have a quiet word with her. Minerva raised an eyebrow when Luna and Daphne joined them but Harry just said that like Hermione, they were his betrothed so he was going to do what he could to try and make sure that they were looked after as well. Strictly speaking, they didn't have authorisation or permission to take them out of Hogwarts but Minerva wasn't about to argue with him when he had that look in his eye, she'd just have to come up with an excuse to give Miss Greengrass and Miss Lovegood detention as well, as that was the excuse they were using for where the other four were.

The students all left their bags in Poppy's office and Minerva transfigured their robes and applied glamours to make it less obvious that they'd skipped out of Hogwarts for this. The Healers in the Emergency Treatment Ward were expecting them, so they were quickly passed through to a regular floo that would take them to the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry laughed when the mannerisms of the witch waiting for them let him see through the glamours she was wearing and he stepped close to whisper. "This look suits you Madam Bones, you should use it more often…."

She looked shocked that he'd seen through her disguise, then snorted and ruffled his hair with a. "Cheeky scamp!"

As they started down Diagon Alley, she explained that what Harry had said about Dumbledore getting Ollivander to sabotage wand matches was worrying, all the more so because the more she thought about it, the more people she remembered who's wands never seemed quite right for them. That was why she decided to see whether she would get any benefit from having a wand made to match her, and not having tracking or other charms applied to it without her knowledge was an attractive idea as well.

Harry looked her in the eye and asked whether she was planning to shut the wand maker down but she shook her head. "No, well not straight away anyway. I'm thinking of having them watched and if they are only supplying wands to criminals and Death Eater types I probably _will_ shut them down, but if they're just making wands for people who don't want to go to Ollivander or Gregorovitch's shop in Carkitt Market, having another source for wands is probably a good thing."

He nodded, as he could go along with that, and gave her the code words they'd need to get wands made in the first place, and to have the trace and any other charms left off them, then handed over a money bag for her to use to pay for wands and wand holsters for all of them. Amelia went to say something then stopped, realising that at Thirteen Harry couldn't be the one in charge and Minerva's accent would probably give them away so she was the most logical one to be in charge.

"I should have asked this before, but do you know how much these wands will cost?"

"Anywhere from fifty to two hundred and fifty galleons or more each, depending on what's used in them, and it's possible that it will work out that some of the woods, cores and enhancement gems that we're matched to will be incompatible so he might need to make up separate wands with different properties. There's over fifteen thousand galleons in that money bag though so there should be enough to cover it."

Amelia nodded, a little taken aback that he'd casually handed her a money bag that had over a year's salary for most people in it, but he'd mentioned something that she didn't recognise. "Enhancement gems?"

Harry nodded. "Officially Ollivander doesn't believe in them, or many of the more exotic wand cores and woods for that matter so we don't see much of them in Britain, but Voldemort believed that that was just more of Dumbledore's machinations to try and make it look like no one else could match his power. According to the wand lore that Voldemort studied, enhancement gems resonate with the magic of the wand wood and cores to amplify the power of what's cast with the wand…. Over time, more than one wand maker has speculated that enhancement gems are the reason the fabled Elder Wand is supposed to be so powerful and Voldemort went along with that theory, because it isn't the only wand made that uses elder wood or thestral tail hairs but we don't hear about other wands made from those materials being particularly powerful. On the basis of the information Voldemort collected I will certainly be having enhancement gems included in my wand or wands if any call out to me."

Amelia shook her head again. "How did you stop him? From what you're telling me, he knew more about magic than Dumbledore…."

* * *

Harry smiled grimly. "Well for a start, _I_ didn't stop him, from what I remember it was some arcane protective ritual powered by Mum's sacrifice that stopped him…. But I think it was his obsession with power and immortality that led to his downfall. Dumbledore and Horace Slughorn were both on the habit of trading arcane magic tomes for sexual favours from attractive boys, and Tom Riddle was a very attractive boy when he was at Hogwarts. His upbringing meant that he had no compunctions about doing whatever he had to to improve his station and like more than a few attractive women have done when they were in dire straits, he used his looks to get what he wanted. Many of the darker wit sharpening and magic enhancing rituals he performed ate away at his humanity and reason though so that by the time Slughorn gave him the book which had the secrets of creating horcruxes... which are supposed to anchor the 'soul' to the land of the living... in Fifth Year, any warnings that may have been written about the side effects of creating horcruxes were ignored. You see in the process for creating a horcrux, the soul... which is basically the person's magic and personality, what makes them human... is split in two and half of it goes into the horcrux…. and in case you don't know about them, the creation of a Horcrux requires an act of cold blooded murder. Riddle could and did perform more dark rituals to return his magic levels to what they had been before he created each horcrux, but he still only had half of the humanity and reason he'd had before he performed the horcrux ritual, and the rituals took away more of what made him human as well. Early on, he asked Slughorn whether having multiple horcruxes would be better than one and Slughorn seemed to agree, so he was planning on making more than one from the start. After he created his first horcrux, the diary that possessed Ginny Weasley last year and made her open the Chamber of Secrets to release Slytherin's basilisk..."

"_**What?**_"

"_Shush!_ Damn, I think we better get Susan checked as we go back through Saint Mungo's if she didn't tell you about that, but anyway, Riddle had the basilisk kill Myrtle Warren to create his first Horcrux while he was in Fifth Year at Hogwarts, which left him with half of his humanity. He then killed his father and paternal grandparents a year or two later to create the second one from Cadmus Peverell's ring, framing his mother's brother for it, leaving him with a quarter of his humanity.… and while he was at Hogwarts, he'd charmed the location of Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem out of her daughter Helena's ghost. After he finished at Hogwarts he went off to Albania to find it, using the death of some peasant to create his third horcrux from it..…."

"He spent a bit of time on the Continent studying the Dark Arts and returned to Britain with the Diadem Horcrux and one eighth of his humanity in the early Fifties, getting a job at Borgin and Burkes because a lot of dark objects pass through that store. He was starting to show external changes from dark rituals and creating the horcruxes by then, but he still looked human, just hollow cheeked and pale. A vain old antique collector who was infatuated with him, Hepzibah Smith, stupidly showed off the prize pieces of her collection, Salazar Slytherin's locket and Helga Hufflepuff's cup, to him in an attempt to impress him but he just stole them and killed her to create his fourth horcrux from Hufflepuff's cup, framing her house elf for her death. He disappeared after that and killed a muggle tramp to create his fifth horcrux from Slytherin's locket, which left him with just one thirty second of his humanity."

"From his memories, he was brilliant and powerful at that point but he no longer looked or acted human and was mad as a hatter so he gave up trying to operate in our society and buried himself in roaming the dark places of the world, studying the dark arts. He came back to Britain in the late Fifties, and that's where this story gets really interesting, because some time after he returned to Britain looking like a snake man with far less humanity and reason than he'd had when he gave up on trying to pass himself off as a normal wizard any more, he went to Hogwarts and applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. Even if the glamour he created was strong enough to fool the almighty Albus Dumbledore as he believed... Voldemort wasn't capable of acting rationally, let alone like a normal human, but Dumbledore spent an hour or so chatting with him before he told him that he couldn't give him the DADA position. After he left the Headmaster's office threatening to make sure that if he couldn't have the DADA position, no one would, Voldemort spent well over an hour wandering around Hogwarts. He hid the Diadem Horcrux in the Room of Requirements on the Seventh Floor, carved the runes to create the curse on the DADA position in the DADA Professor's Office on the Second Floor and the records room in the Dungeon, and used more runes to create an anchor for the curse in the Chamber of Secrets so no one else would be able to remove it, but the _Great_ Albus Dumbledore apparently didn't notice anything wrong, or see any reason to check whether Voldemort had actually left the castle."

"Aside from keeping an eye out for a heirloom from Godric Gryffindor to use to create his next horcrux, Voldemort, because he was no longer Tom Riddle by then, appeared to forget about them through the Sixties as he was concentrating on building up his followers and studying ways to make himself more powerful, both magically and politically, but it appears that Dumbledore was worried that things being quiet for so long was causing his star to wane, because coming up to the Seventies there were a series of attacks launched on Voldemort and his people, and their reprisals to those attacks were recorded as the start of the Wizarding War in Nineteen Seventy."

"Voldemort was tied up in the war through the Seventies, but it looks like Dumbledore was getting desperate again by the end of the Seventies, because he set up that sot Trelawney to make a so called prophecy to him in a room in his brother's pub in Hogsmeade while she was supposedly being interviewed for a Divination position at Hogwarts in early Nineteen Eighty, and some of Voldemort's people just happened to hear that Dumbledore was having meetings with a seer down there so Voldemort sent Snape to apply for the Potions position that had also been advertised and find out what Dumbledore was doing. Dumbledore's brother Aberforth caught Snape listening and threw him out before he could hear the whole thing but from the information Voldemort had, Aberforth blamed Albus for their sister's death so I don't see him willingly working with him to set this up. I expect Albus used compulsions and other manipulations like he does with everyone else to make Aberforth play the part that was scripted for him….."

"Anyway, that so called prophecy from Trelawney was made up to specifically paint a target on my family. Everyone knew what a brilliant witch Mum was and what powerful Aurors Dad and Uncle Siri were, so Dumbledore probably thought that if he sent Voldemort after us and made sure that Mum and Dad _knew_ that he was coming after us, between them they'd come up with a way to destroy him, which they would have if it wasn't for those damned horcruxes. Of course Voldemort had to be able to get to us, so Dumbledore manoeuvred Uncle Siri into the position of arguing that everyone would expect him to be the secret keeper, so it would be better to make it Pettigrew but let people think it was him. From what Pettigrew told Voldemort, Dumbledore had been keeping him on tap for sex since he was at Hogwarts, starting around the same time as he became Voldemort's follower by some strange coincidence, so he was supposedly a double agent, spying on Dumbledore for Voldemort and Voldemort for Dumbledore, much the same as Snape was after he realised that the so called prophecy he'd told Voldemort about was likely to get Mum, who he'd been obsessed with since before they started at Hogwarts, killed. As far as I'm concerned Snape, Dad and Uncle Siri all share the blame for the debacle that got Mum and Dad killed, because when he realised that Dumbledore wasn't going to do anything to protect Mum after he swore an oath to serve him to try and save her, Snape wrote to Mum and tried to warn her. Because of their history with Snape, Dad and Uncle Siri kept arguing that it was a trap and Snape was just trying to play her until Mum and Dad had a screaming row about it, which ended up with Dad downstairs getting drunk on Firewhiskey and Mum upstairs performing a protection ritual on me in case Snape was telling the truth when Voldemort arrived that Halloween."

"Dad managed to call out a warning to Mum but he wasn't able to stop Voldemort and there was no way of us getting out so Mum just finished the protection ritual and made Voldemort kill her to activate it… But when Voldemort tried to get rid of me to eliminate the risk the prophecy said I represented to him, whatever spell he cast backfired and turned him to ash, much like it did to his host Quirrell in my First Year at Hogwarts. I don't know what the spell was because he cast it non verbally, but it definitely _wasn't_ the killing curse as Dumbledore's stories claim. The spell backlash was severe enough to split his soul in two again and half of it attached itself to me as the closest receptacle while the other half disappeared as a wraith. Pettigrew came up to see what his master was screaming about and I think he wet himself when he saw that his master had been destroyed, then he heard someone arriving so he quickly grabbed Voldemort's wand and any valuables he could pocket easily and went to run, but settled down when he realised that it was Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore, the great _Leader of the Light_, congratulated Pettigrew on helping bring their plan to end Voldemort to fruition, brushing off my parents' deaths as totally unimportant, but he got angry when he realised that I was still alive. That was when Uncle Siri arrived, the blood brother link with Dad had told him something was wrong and he went to Pettigrew's mother's house to get him to come with him…. Pettigrew wasn't much of a wizard but Uncle Siri had enough sense to know that apparating into the middle of a Death Eater attack by himself would be stupid. Pettigrew wasn't there though so Uncle Siri came alone anyway. He called out as he entered the cottage and Dumbledore had Pettigrew change into his Animagus form and hide, but that was the last thing I saw because Dumbledore stunned me, presumably to make sure I didn't manage to say anything that could tip Uncle Siri off about what had happened…. And the next thing I knew was when I woke up on the Dursleys doorstep."

Amelia shook her head. "We are going to be going through all of this as soon as we have the time Mister Potter, Albus Dumbledore, horcruxes, curses, basilisks, Quirrell, who I presume was that Hogwarts professor who disappeared two years ago, _everything….._ but for now I suggest that we see about these wands before my head explodes."

Harry just grinned and nodded, leading the way to the unofficial wand maker's shop.


	3. Albus' Nemesis

**Okay, Prissy Percy gets slapped down and then thrown a bone in this one, so one way or another I'm sure I'll upset someone. :^)**

**Usual disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

One thing that struck them about the selection process this wand maker used was that while they each had checked their compatibility with a multitude of different woods, cores and gems, for most of them it actually took far less time than it had for them to find a wand at Ollivander's. Of course once they found what components talked to them and those components had been sorted into what would work together to make two wands for each of them, the wands would actually take a couple of hours to craft. The wand maker told them that making them look as much like their current wands as possible would add to the time it took, but they all agreed that it would be a good idea to try and cover up the fact that they'd changed wands so they went with that.

He had told them to come back in two or three hours for the wands etc, so they decided to use that time shopping for the other things they needed, picking up more comprehensive and better quality potions and runes kits, telescopes, robes, clothes etc and extensive book collections for the six students there plus extra potions and runes kits, books and the like for the twins and others Harry was expecting to be joining their planned study group.

Amelia made a point of going off to browse in another shop when Harry started talking to the people in the Globus Mundi Travel Agents office about buying their ex rental flying carpets from them. When she returned, the group had moved on to another shop and Minerva was looking both amused and impressed so Amelia asked if she wanted to know what was so amusing and she laughed.

"I'd swear that boy could sell sun hats to Mermen! But as for your question, is there any law against using flying carpets as floor rugs?"

Amelia shook her head, wondering where this was going. "No, the reason flying carpets are illegal here is _because_ they aren't being used as floor rugs."

"Then you will be glad to know that a collection of flying carpets that were in the store room of Globus Mundi will now be serving as floor rugs in the living compartments of those trunks the children are getting. While he was at it, he also convinced them to sell him all the damaged brooms they had in the store room, over a hundred and fifty in all, for thirty to forty Galleons each. The majority of them were Comet Two Sixties, Cleansweep Sixes and Nimbus Seventeen Hundreds but there were at least fifteen Nimbus Two Thousands, over thirty Cleansweep Sevens and even a few Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones in there. To quote Harry, 'no one wants to rent old knocked about brooms'... Old knocked about brooms! The Nimbuses and Cleansweeps were the best brooms you could buy when they came out two years ago and there's nothing wrong with any of them that a bit of care and attention wouldn't fix!"

Amelia shook her head again and sighed. "He may have squeezed a good deal out of Globus Mundi Minerva but between that, the wands, those trunks, the potion and runes kits and everything else he's spent all of the fifteen thousand odd galleons he brought with him and over half of the extra ten thousand odd galleons he got from the Gringotts Money Exchange. I know that with what he has available to him now, twenty two thousand galleons isn't much but I have a problem with him spending so much on Susan and I."

"We were talking about that Amelia, because I and the other children were saying the same thing. Harry's position is that they all need the better quality potion and runes kits, books and the like if they are to learn the subjects properly because the prescribed books and equipment are inadequate and this is the best opportunity to get them. He also argued that he, Hermione and Luna all need to learn how to dress and act as they will be expected to in our world and they need Susan, Daphne and Neville to be able to demonstrate everything as they're teaching them, because that's one area where Voldemort's memories don't help him. He then pointed out that with Dumbledore, Snape and creatures like Ronald Weasley and some of the girls in Ravenclaw who have apparently been stealing Luna Lovegood's clothes and belongings, they really need the extra security features of those trunks he is buying….. and I need to take this up with Filius but from what I heard Miss Lovegood was apparently locked out of the Ravenclaw Tower in nothing but her nightdress on more than a few occasions last year, and I believe the poor girl was actually cast out naked at least once."

"Harry's argument is that by getting them all these trunks with living compartments, Luna will now be able to call his house elf Dobby to bring her trunk to her if she gets locked out again so that she will have both clothes and somewhere safe to sleep... and for that matter if _any_ of them feel threatened or just need peace and quiet they will now have a safe place to sleep in their trunks. They all indicated that it is quite likely that they will be using that aspect of the trunks at some point, which I must say doesn't paint a pretty picture of how they see our world nowadays."

"He also pointed out that the benefit of the two of us getting these wands made up as well as the children is that we are better able to evaluate them against the wands we have been using for most of our lives and if these wands do indeed make better tools than the ones Garrick Ollivander supplies, then we should be steering others we trust their way so they can ready themselves to better deal with what's coming their way."

By then their shopping had taken up two and a half hours, so they headed back to the wand maker's to get their wands and everything else. The wand maker couldn't help feeling a little smug as he watched their shock when they picked up their new wands and felt the power of them because he knew that his wands were much better than Ollivander's, but thanks to Albus Dumbledore he wasn't _legal__ly _allowed to make or sell wands or most of his other special items…. He had to rely on word of mouth for those items and keep the Ministry from finding out about them, which meant that he often had to deal with people he didn't particularly like or approve of and do other things to make a living.

His business was officially a hole in the wall luggage shop but he had created and furnished the multi-compartment trunks they bought as well, so this had turned into a _very_ good night for him….. Selling sixteen of his custom wands, the twenty three disillusioned and protected wand holsters he had in the shop, over two dozen bags and pouches with Undetectable Extension Charms, and every one of his multi-compartment trunks... Having to hide what he was doing from the Ministry, he normally only sold one or two of those high end trunks a year if he was lucky, so for these people to decide to buy up all eight of the ones he had there because they could appreciate their value and features was amazing. The boy who was obviously making the decisions had asked for four trunks at first, but then he asked if he had any more after they'd looked through them. Even with the discount he gave them for such a large order this one sale would be enough to take the strain off for at least a year, and then they asked when he'd have more trunks available and whether he would mind if they directed other people his way... Oh yes, this was turning into a _very_ good year!

* * *

Harry had been using legilimency on the man to see whether he could be trusted and had seen some rather interesting and disturbing things in his memories, so he knew that he could not only be trusted, he was someone they _definitely_ wanted on their side. He didn't have time to fill Amelia and Minerva in on what he'd discovered, so they and the others were shocked when Harry dropped the glamour he was using and told the man the truth about who he was. Harry also shocked the wand maker when he addressed him by his real name, as that was something he was sure had been forgotten since the conceited, ambitious and utterly ruthless Albus Dumbledore had destroyed him and his family name by framing him for killing his parents in a ritual that went wrong when they were at Hogwarts together at the end of the Nineteenth Century in an attempt to get rid of what he saw as the biggest obstacle to his gaining the respect and acclaim that his plans for world domination demanded. If Dumbledore had had the power to control popular opinion that he later developed back then, he would have ended up being reviled as a dark lord who had been stopped before he came to power, but as it was he was just dishonoured, cast out and forgotten, left alone with little to do other than pursue his studies in private.

The man who had gone by the name of Alfred Stowe since he took a new identity for himself in the midst of the chaos of Grindelwald's war took a good look at the boy and nodded to himself, because there could be no doubt that this was Henry and Charlus Potter's descendent, but he saw something else in him… Harry caught that look and nodded, explaining that having a soul fragment of Tom Riddle, better known as Lord Voldemort, in his head for nearly twelve years, losing a small part of his own soul to a dementor's kiss and now having access to most of the Dark Lord's memories and knowledge of the dark arts would have had to change him a little….

Alfred smiled at the young witch who'd been at the boy's side most of the time they were there as she hugged him when he said that and told him he was still Harry, he was still _her_ Harry. He could see what the boy was talking about, but having a witch like this to anchor him would help keep him on the right path if he ever wavered.

Harry explained why he'd taken Alfred into his confidence and Baron Randolph Mordred Warg, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Medrawt and Chieftain of the Most Ancient Druid Clan Warg (also known as Alfred Stowe) was quite happy to take the oaths to become a vassal of the House of Potter, accepting their protection and a retainer of two thousand galleons a month, plus an agreed payment scale to make wands and anything else they wanted and tutor Harry and his friends in the subjects that he had mastered…. as that would give him a much better life than he had at the moment, and he would be doing something worthwhile… Not to mention the fact that it would give him the chance to help strike back against Albus Bloody Dumbledore!

Alfred also gifted Harry with something that he'd never intended to sell, or part with, because it was his masterpiece, the result of over a hundred years of mastery of his art. Wargholm looked much like the other trunks on the outside normally, but the gems embedded in the corners and other key points of the Goblin Silver shell allowed it to be warded better than most manors and it had been expanded far past what most people would have believed possible inside. The living area was the equivalent of an elegant manor house and there were even larger spaces which appeared to be massive greenhouses with the walls and ceiling enchanted like the windows throughout the living area to give outdoor scenes and gardens, pools and enough room for full sized Quidditch pitches inside, linked to it. It also had other features that were as far as Alfred knew unique, such as the trunk's wand wood shell being enchanted so that it could go out of phase with the normal world and be flown like a magic carpet from inside, but far faster and more comfortable than any carpet or broom.

Harry tried to say that he couldn't take the trunk, but they could all see how much he wanted it (how could you _not_ want something as incredible as that?), so when Alfred caught Harry's witch Hermione's eye and signalled her to give him a nudge, she gave him a grin and had Harry gratefully accepting the trunk within ten minutes using the time honoured 'do it for me' ploy.

From Hermione's questions, Alfred could see that it wouldn't be long before he was asked to add some of the features of Wargholm to the other trunks, in particular the flight option and the ability to go out of phase and be called to the one who's magical signature it was linked to like House rings and key heirlooms (when Hermione heard about that, she immediately thought of Luna being locked out of the Ravenclaw Tower and decided that this would be a better option for her than calling for Dobby), but he didn't have a problem with that.

Before they left, Alfred activated the mirror portals he'd created in the trunks to link their trunks and his. He'd never trusted any Ministry that was under Albus Dumbledore's thumb enough to allow any Floo Network connections in his shops or flats, but he'd been building these portals into his trunks as he created them for the last half century so that he could move between the ones he used himself. They also allowed movement between the living, potions, storage and other spaces within the trunks without leaving the trunk as that used the same principle as moving between spaces in different trunks.

Alfred also induced his new Liege Lord to add eighteen of the two dozen incredible undetectable Goblin Silver Shield Holsters he had made to the order (these had bottomless compartments and runic portkey/communications mirrors built into them and crystal cored Goblin Silver War Wands (which were nominally in the form of a dagger but could morph into other forms of Goblin Silver weapons as well as being used to cast offensive magic) in built in sheaths, and like the War Wands, the Goblin Silver arm bracers could morph into shields and armour). Harry brushed aside the high cost of the Shield Holsters aside as soon as Alfred demonstrated what they could do, and as with the trunks, Harry was wanting to know how soon he could make more. His reminder that it would take him a while to make more of the things Harry was after because he only had one pair of hands led to him accepting a dozen House Elf helpers as the Head of Noble and Most Ancient House of Medrawt and its Associated Houses and Clans (Dumbledore had never had the power to wipe out Most Ancient or Ancient Houses or Clans, so the House of Medrawt and Clan Warg were still extant, though they had remained dormant for nearly a century), because Harry was certain that they'd be needing more _soon_.

* * *

Nearly four hours had passed by then, so they had to get back to Hogwarts. They said their goodbyes to Alfred and headed back to the Leaky Cauldron where Amelia Flooed back to the Ministry and the rest of them went to St Mungo's to use the dedicated Floo in the Emergency Treatment Ward to get back into the Infirmary at Hogwarts.

Minerva escorted the children to Filius, and then Pomona's offices, getting Harry to scan them for compulsions and blocks and remove any he found before explaining the situation to them and having Harry cast the secrecy charms on them to protect their secrets. Filius and Pomona were quite on board with supporting the story that Luna and Susan had been in detention with Minerva, and that Minerva had neglected to tell Filius beforehand but Pomona had forgotten that she had been told. Pomona was actually happy to promote the idea that she was an absent minded old witch if it meant that Dumbledore dismissed and ignored her after she found uot what he's been doing to them.

Filius was horrified to hear that Luna had been bullied and had her things stolen by other Ravenclaws and promised to address the matter the next morning, so when she returned to the Ravenclaw Tower, the girls bullying her couldn't work out why she just smiled and ignored them when they were taunting her, as if she knew something they didn't.

Once the other children were returned to their dorms, Minerva escorted Daphne to Snape's office and made a perfunctory apology for forgetting to advise him beforehand that she'd given Miss Greengrass detention that night for misbehaving in class. Harry had cast the same secrecy charms over Daphne so Snape didn't get anything from her when he tried to scan her thoughts, but like many of the old Noble families she was trained in occlumency so he didn't expect to get much from her. When she returned to the dorms, she pulled her little sister Astoria aside and keyed the Shield Holster and ward/locator rune crystals Harry had bought for her to her magical signature, then showed her how to use them. Astoria would be getting new wands, trunk etc when 'Uncle Alfred' had the time to make more, but for now being able to secure her bed space and portkey into Daphne's trunk would make her a lot safer.

The girls in her dorm room were surprised when Luna replaced her trunk with another one that looked much like it, but they didn't say anything because they didn't actually dislike her, they were just too afraid of the older girls to stand up for her. They were secretly pleased when the girl who tried to get into Luna's trunk to steal her things the next morning ended up in the Infirmary, covered in boils… even more so when it was proven that it had only happened because she was trying to break into Luna's trunk because Professor Flitwick decreed that Luna had every right to have protective charms cast on her trunk to stop any more of her things being stolen, and then read the riot act to the entire house about no-one doing anything to stop members of their house being bullied.

The Ravenclaw prefects were horrified when they all lost their prefect badges and were told that the reason they had permanently lost their status as prefects would be included in their official records. Most of the house thought that he'd gone too far when Ravenclaw's best hope for a seeker, Cho Chang, was permanently banned from playing on the house team because she was identified as one of the ringleaders of the ones who were bullying Luna and stealing her things, but when the captain of the team tried to tell Filius he couldn't do that, he was permanently banned as well. They got a glimpse of the wizard who'd been the European duelling champion several times then as he angrily told them that if anyone said another word about their Quidditch team's prospects he'd ban _everyone_ in Ravenclaw from Second Year up from _ever_ playing on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, as they _obviously_ needed to take the time to re-evaluate their priorities and get a better understanding of honour and acceptable behaviour if they couldn't understand why the current behaviour of so many members of Ravenclaw was unacceptable.

He pointed at Chang and said. "I will _never_ let thieves and bullies like Miss Chang, or anyone else who agrees with her, represent Ravenclaw!"

That was enough to make everyone shut up, but he could see that some of them at least were beginning to think about what he said.

* * *

Ron Weasley had of course forgotten that their friendship had ended back at lunchtime and demanded to know where Harry and Hermione had been when they arrived in the common room. Harry had already passed his shrunken trunk to Neville so that he could slip away and swap his old trunk for the new one in their dorm room while everyone's attention was on the argument in the common room. So to make it easier for Neville, Harry hammed it up downstairs.

"Maybe you should have gotten Madam Pomfrey to check your head when she tried to fix your nose and teeth Weasley, because in case you've forgotten, I got detention with Professor McGonagall for trying to teach you how to behave at lunch….. And not that it's any of your business, but Hermione and Neville also got detention for trying to stick up for me and say that that wasn't fair."

He could see out of the corner of his eye that the Twins were lapping this up, but Percy was puffing himself up to assert his authority…. And there it was!

"Potter! How _dare_ you talk to your betters like that? You obviously need to be taught your place, so you will serve a week of detention… With Professor Snape!"

Harry turned to face the smarmy git who was gloating about the odious punishment he had just dealt out.

"My _b__etters?_ Oh some of you Weasleys _do_ have tickets on yourselves, don't you?"

He grinned at the Twins. "Not you two, you're our favourite mischief makers."

The Twins beamed at him and leapt to their feet, bowing low and pretending to wipe tears away.

"Why thank you kind sir, I think that's the nicest thing anyone ever said to us!"

His amusement disappeared as he turned back to Percy. "I challenge your contention that you and your brother are my 'betters' in any way Mister Weasley, and I _also_ challenge your right to assign detention or any other punishment to me without cause. I demand that this matter be adjudged by Professor McGonagall, as Gryffindor's House Mistress and the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts!"

Percy tried to bluster that he couldn't do that but one of the other prefects spoke up. "Shut up Weasley! Potter most assuredly _does_ have the right to appeal any unjust treatment and punishments, and Professor McGonagall obviously needs to know that you believe that being Head Boy gives you the right to bully students over minor disagreements with one of your family members which had nothing to do with you!"

They sent one of the other students to fetch Professor McGonagall and Percy was still trying to argue that there was no need to disturb Professor McGonagall when Minerva arrived.

"Quiet Mister Weasley! Now will someone please explain why I have been called to the common room at this time of the night?"

* * *

That kicked off half an hour of shouting and argument while Harry and Hermione just stood back and watched with big smiles on their faces. The highlight for Harry was when Percy complained that he had insulted his brothers by calling them trouble makers and Minerva stared at him, incredulous that anyone would ever try to argue _that_ point, then turned to the Twins.

"Is this correct Messers Weasley?"

"Well ..."

"As far as Harry calling us _mischief_ makers…."

"Yes, but that was no insult..."

"It was an insightful observation….

"That meant the world to us..."

"Because it shows that he recognises us as we truly are…."

"_And_ he called us his _favourite_ mischief makers, which just makes us feel so special"

Minerva held her hand up to stop the twin-pong and made an effort to wipe the smile off her face before she turned back to Percy.

"It would appear that your brothers do not feel insulted at all Mister Weasley, in fact if I understood the nearly unintelligible jumble that they make of speech correctly, they felt honoured by the appellation Mister Potter gave them. Did you bother consulting your brothers about this before you made that accusation on their behalf, or is this just another instance of you making an unfounded attack on Mister Potter over something that had absolutely nothing to do with you?"

* * *

"As the other prefects have reminded you, you do _not_ have the right to use your Head Boy's position to bully students and you do _not_ have to right to arbitrarily assign detentions to other students without good reason to do so Mister Weasley.… Mister Potter will _not_ be serving any detentions with Professor Snape on your say so, and while I have no doubt that the Headmaster will do what he can to veto you being removed as the Head Boy, I _can_ correct the mistake I made two years ago when I gave in to the Headmaster's contention that you were the best choice for Gryffindor prefect…"

She looked around the room and stopped when she spied Oliver Wood. "Mister Wood! While I must admit to having what has been called an obsession with keeping the Quidditch Cup away from Slytherin, your obsession is I believe even worse than mine, so to help you put things in proper perspective, you will be taking over from Mister Weasley as Gryffindor's male Seventh Year Prefect. Mister Weasley, kindly hand your prefect's badge to Mister Wood…."

When he just looked at her mulishly, she snapped. "_Now_. Mister Weasley…. Or you will be making history as the first Head Boy in I don't know how long to have his position stripped from him…. Actually, don't bother, I will convene a meeting with the other House Heads and have it voted in first thing in the morning. Even Professor Snape won't fight me on this if it means that he gets to see the Head Boy's position being stripped from a Gryffindor."

Percy actually tore his robes in his hurry to get the prefect's badge off and hand it to Minerva.

He withered under her stern gaze as she growled at him. "Do _not _challenge me again Mister Weasley! If I hear of another incident of you attempting to abuse your authority to attack any student out of pique or a grudge, I _will_ be convening a meeting of the House Heads, and if that happens we won't just be removing you as Head Boy, we will be expelling you from Hogwarts for abusing you authority. I am sufficiently disgusted with your behaviour to take the matter to the Hogwarts Board of Governors if the Headmaster tries to veto that….. Do you understand me Mister Weasley?"

He gulped, losing his position of Head Boy and being expelled would destroy every chance he had of getting what he'd been working for. His voice cracked and he squeaked as he urgently assured her. "Yes Professor McGonagall! I understand and I assure you that this will never happen again! I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me!"

"It isn't _me_ you should be apologising to Mister Weasley."

Percy turned to Harry, and Harry thought he was going to get on his knees for a moment. "I'm so sorry Mister Potter, I really don't know what came over me..."

Harry tuned out for a minute as something occurred to him, he glanced at Hermione and she frowned as she got what he was thinking, then he looked at Minerva, who frowned when she caught onto what he was thinking too. Percy Weasley had always behaved unlike both his older and younger brothers, _was_ he just a prat, or was he a victim of manipulation too?

Minerva spoke up. "Actually Mister Weasley, I think this discussion would be better continued in private, so I will see you and Mister Potter in my office… now."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Percy was mystified when Professor McGonagall didn't punish Potter, or at least wash his mouth out with soap, when he spat out "That coniving old bastard!"

Percy was looking from one to the other, wanting someone to tell him what was going on, and the Professor waved to Harry.

"Do you want the good news, or the bad news first Percy?"

"What are you talking about Potter… Harry?"

"The good news is that you aren't a complete and utter prat..."

"What…."

"The bad news is that you've been interfered with by the same old bastard as myself, Professor McGonagall and several other people."

"_**What?**_"

Harry looked at Minerva. "I think he would take this better if it came from you Professor."

Minerva nodded. "Mister Weasley, are you aware that Mister Potter was actually kissed by that dementor on the Hogwarts Express?"

"People said that, but I assumed it was just stories."

"No, it wasn't. The only thing that saved Mister Potter was the fact that he also had the soul fragment of someone else, the one commonly known as Lord Voldemort, in his head and it was mostly that which the dementor sucked out before Professor Lupin got around to chasing it off with a patronus charm. The dementor did suck out a very small piece of Mister Potter's soul, and that appeared to break loose some of the compulsions and memory blocks that had been placed on him. This gave Mister Potter the impetus to trick Madam Pomfrey into getting him taken to Saint Mungo's, where the healers removed the rest of the bindings, memory and willpower blocks, compulsion and confundus charms from him and flushed the potions out of his system, and then did the same for Madam Pomfrey. Mister Potter had asked Miss Granger to get Susan Bones to contact her Aunt about the illegal tampering that he'd discovered and they spent the rest of the morning sorting out the issues…." she stopped and looked at Harry.

"Do you still want to convince Ronald Weasley that his rat was killed by the owls Mister Potter?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I can't be bothered now, at the moment I'd be quite happy to let him find out that he's been sleeping with a creepy…" He suddenly stopped and looked at Percy, muttering "Shite!"

Percy could tell something else was going on here. "What's this about Scabbers?"

Minerva tried to think of a delicate way to explain, but gave up. "Mister Weasley, when the rat Scabbers was your pet… Were you as close to it as your brother seemed to be? Did you have it sleeping in your bed and with you when you were undressing or bathing?"

"Of course not Professor, that would have been inappropriate!"

Harry gave a sigh of relief. "That's good, because Scabbers was actually the animagus form of a wizard by the name of Peter Pettigrew, who was captured this morning and is going to be tried for all the crimes he framed Sirius Black for, with help from Albus Dumbledore."

"What? That's ridiculous! Professor Dumbledore wouldn…."

Harry chuckled when a whispered 'petrificus totalus' locked Percy up so tight that he couldn't even move his eyes. "These new wands are going to take some getting used to Professor."

"Yes, but Mister Weasley does not appear to be breathing Harry, so I suggest that you remove whatever has been put on him and release him before he suffocates."

"Oops, sorry. Okay…. Let's see."

About forty seconds later, Harry released Percy and apologised, but Percy had to get his swearing about old bastards out of his system before he was ready to take part in further discussion.

They wound the discussion up and Harry put the same secrecy charms on Percy as he had everyone else involved before they headed back to the Gryffindor common room.

* * *

Ron's face fell when Percy and Potter walked in together civilly as he was sure that Percy would have managed to turn things around and get Potter in trouble.

Percy went straight over to Oliver and quietly told him that Professor McGonagall wanted to talk to the two of them first thing in the morning, because he had straightened things out with Harry and at Harry's suggestion Professor McGonagall was willing to give him his prefect's badge back if Oliver didn't want it. Oliver was all for that idea, because he wanted to concentrate on Quidditch to give himself the best possible chance to get into a professional team when he left Hogwarts, but their conversation was disturbed by Ron shouting at the prefect who had stopped him going over to confront Harry, Hermione and Neville about what they were laughing about in the corner.

Percy asked Oliver to come with him when he headed over to break up the altercation, and Oliver and the prefect didn't bother covering up their grins at Ron's outrage when Percy _suggested_, asking Oliver his opinion, that the other prefect come to Professor McGonagall with them in the morning and they get the Professor to assign suitable punishment to Ron once she heard what had happened. Oliver pretended to consider the point and agreed, then told Ron to go to bed and not make any more trouble unless he wanted his punishment doubled.

After they watched Ron stomp upstairs, Oliver turned to Percy. "Don't take this wrong Percy, but I like you a hell of a lot more without that massive stick up your arse. What happened to cause this sudden change?"

Percy looked around and saw that they had attracted a lot of attention. "Professor McGonagall opened my eyes to a lot of things when she was giving me a dressing down Oliver, but I don't think this is the place to discuss it. Perhaps it would be better if you asked Professor McGonagall about it when we see her in the morning."

Oliver nodded, but he obviously thought there was more to this than Percy was saying.

* * *

By the time Harry and Neville went to bed, Ron was asleep and snoring loud enough to wake the dead, so they decided to close the curtains on their beds, activate the wards and try out the living quarters in Harry's new trunk (Neville snored too, but he was nowhere near as loud as Ron and the rooms in the trunk space were silenced). They both had the best night sleep they'd ever had in the dorm and the best part was that the other three in their room had no idea of where they'd slept.

In the morning, Percy got his prefect's badge back and Oliver was told the new rules about how often he was allowed to make the team practice this year, given how many of them would be sitting their OWLs or NEWTs and Harry would be working hard to make up for slacking off for the previous two years. Oliver's disappointment about the limitations being placed on practice was mitigated to a degree by Minerva telling him that an anonymous benefactor had agreed to loan Nimbus 2000s or Cleansweep 7s to anyone on the school teams who didn't have decent brooms though, as that would go a long way to negating the advantage those Nimbus 2001s gave the Slytherin team.

Minerva was furious when she heard about Ron Weasley's latest act, so she doubled his detentions with Argus Filch. She was sorely tempted to make it a month, but knew that Molly Weasley would be whining to Dumbledore about her son being unfairly punished and it would be hard to justify a month's detentions without admitting that she knew what else he'd done. She had no doubt that Dumbledore would try and argue that he didn't deserve the original week's detention because he didn't mean what he'd said about Hermione…

She gave a most unladylike snort… Leader of the Light my arse! She never would have seen this if they hadn't removed his manipulations but the old bastard was just as much of a blood supremacist as the so-called _Dark_ families, even though his own mother was what people like him was called a Mudblood.

'Alfred Stowe' had certainly opened her eyes the night before, with his information about the truth of Albus Dumbledore's background. The fact that he and his parents were all Slytherins, rather than Gryffindors as the records showed now was quite interesting, and the way he had framed 'Alfred' for his parents' deaths and got him thrown out of Hogwarts in disgrace purely because Alfred was a superior wizard who wouldn't go along with his plans was disturbing, but it made it easier to understand the callous way he had set the Potters up to be killed.

Seeing the amazing things that Alfred had created, she could quite easily believe that he was a far more accomplished wizard than Albus Dumbledore, and the parallels between Alfred and Harry were also quite interesting, in that both of them had lost their parents and been banished to a harsh life through Dumbledore's machinations.

The fact that 'Alfred' had come to know and respect both Harry's Great Grandfather and Grandfather in the time before he took advantage of the turmoil of Grindelwald's war to disappear and create a completely new identity for himself was something else to their advantage, because Alfred could see his forebears in Harry and so had been pre-inclined to agree when Harry had proposed that he come under the protection and employment of the House of Potter.

They were trying to work out the best place for Alfred to move to once he'd wound up his affairs and closed his business off Knockturn Alley. It was a given that it wouldn't safe for him to remain where he was as people knew about him and his…. sidelines, and he would be found soon enough if he moved to another location anywhere near Diagon Alley, but the question was what other wizarding community would be big enough for him to blend in if he moved there.

The most obvious choice was Hogsmeade, but being so close to Hogwarts and Albus Dumbledore could present a problem, especially with Dumbledore's brother Aberforth owning and running the Hogshead Pub there. Minerva had to admit that she found Alfred's idea of using the evidence he had which proved that it had been _Albus_ who had committed the crimes with the goats that Aberforth had been sentenced to serve time in Azkaban for to recruit him to their cause titillating. Aberforth was a rough egg, but he was no fool and he'd understand that they had no chance of ever getting Albus convicted of the crime, but while it would not be enough to get him justice, she agreed with Alfred that Aberforth would be likely to cherish the proof of his innocence.

Harry's secrecy charm should suffice to protect their secrets for a while, and given a bit of time Aberforth should have no trouble getting his Occlumency skills up to scratch with a bit of encouragement and coaching from Harry (whose knowledge in that field from Voldemort was frightening) because the Dumbledores had a natural affinity with the mind arts, from what they were discovering now that was how Albus achieved what he had to date. With Aberforth on their side, it should be safe enough for Alfred to move into Hogsmeade if they used the story that he was an old wizard retiring to a cottage in Hogsmeade so that he could live out the rest of his life in peace. Alfred could live _quite_ comfortably on the retainer and payments that Harry had agreed with him last night, so he didn't need to work and she had seen from his enthusiasm last night that he would be as happy as a clam if all he ever made was the 'speciality items' that Harry wanted him to create for them.

On top of that, while he could never work in the field again after being convicted of unnatural acts with animals, Aberforth had gained his mastery in Magical Creatures nearly a century ago and was extremely accomplished. In fact Newton Scamander had learned what he needed to know to get his own mastery in the field from Aberforth, and having someone with those skills in their camp could be quite useful down the track…. The more she thought about it, the more sense Alfred's proposal made.

* * *

The howler Molly Weasley sent Ron at breakfast proved that she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, because between screeching like a banshee at him for disgracing the family she told the whole world… or everyone in the Great Hall at least…. About their plans for Ginny to be matched up with Harry, the fact that the Headmaster was relying on him to stay close enough to Harry to tell him what Harry was doing, and that she was as much of a blood bigot as her youngest son because she dropped the term 'Mudblood' more than once in her rant.

Up at the High Table Dumbledore looked like he'd found a shit flavoured bean in a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Hagrid looked shocked, Lupin looked surprised, Minerva, Pomona and Filius looked enraged and Snape just looked amused that the wife of the most famous Muggle lover in Magical Britain would drop the 'M' word more than once when describing what was supposed to be one of her son's best friends, even if that son was in trouble for using the same word.

Harry laughed as Dumbledore rushed out of the Great Hall, obviously planning on telling off the silly cow for exposing their plans so publicly. Feeling a bit devilish, he called out down the table.

"Hey Gred, Forge, what's the magical equivalent of cooking sherry?"

"Strangely enough young Harry, the magical equivalent of cooking sherry is _cooking sherry_, why do you ask?"

"Because from the way someone just ran out of here, I'm betting that Ron there will be receiving another howler from your Mum tomorrow, explaining that she didn't mean any of those things she said and blaming it on getting into the cooking sherry."

Ron almost blew up at the implied insult to his mother, but he caught McGonagall watching him just in time. He could tell that she was just waiting for a chance to give him more detentions so he swallowed what he was about to say with a great deal of difficulty.

Fred and George ovbiously thought what Harry said was hilarious, but Percy looked angry and disappointed, because he was willing to bet that Harry was spot on about what was happening at the moment _and_ what would be arriving tomorrow morning.

There were quite a few thoughtful looks in the Great Hall at Dumbledore's Golden Boy making a crack like that about the Headmaster though, and several students rushed out to Owl their parents with the latest piece of juicy Hogwarts gossip.

* * *

As Harry, Hermione and Neville were leaving the Great Hall, Lupin stopped Harry and asked to have a word with him. Harry just looked at him and asked. "Is this about my dead parents or Uncles Professor? Because I already told you that I don't like talking about those subjects."

"No Harry, it's not about that."

Harry almost spat out that there was no connection between them to allow that type of familiarity, but he let it ride to see where Lupin was going with this. "Very well Professor, what do you want to talk about."

Lupin looked at Hermione and Neville. "This isn't the sort of thing to discuss in public Harry."

"Hermione and Neville are my closest friends Professor, anything you want to say to me can be said in front of them."

"I really must insist on speaking to you in private Harry…."

Harry had had enough of this. "Oh you _must_, must you? Hermione, can you get Professor McGonagall for me please? I'm sorry to ask you but I think I may need Neville here as a witness who will be accepted by the Pureblood Houses."

Hermione nodded. "Of course Harry, I won't be long." With that she gave his hand a squeeze and dashed back into the Great Hall, returning almost at a run with a stern looking Minerva McGonagall.

"What appears to be the issue Mister Potter?"

"Well we can start with that Professor McGonagall. I have no familial or other connection with Professor Lupin, but he insists on using an overly familiar form of address whenever he speaks to me, even though I have not observed him using such a familiar form of address with any other student."

"Then there is the fact that this is the second time in less than twenty hours that he has attempted to get me alone to talk to me. If this were the non magical world, a male teacher who is overly familiar with an underage student and keeps trying to get them alone would be suspended and thoroughly investigated because that is stereotypical behaviour for a sexual predator who is grooming children for sexual favours…."

"_What are you saying Harry?_ It's nothing like that! I just wanted to get to know you again because I was one of your parents' closest friends, your Uncle Moony!"

"Once again, you are attempting to imply a link between us by using an overly familiar form of address and claiming familial ties, but why don't we look at your claims? Where were you on the Thirteenth of August Nineteen Eighty Professor Lupin?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"I believe it will indicate how close a friend of my parents you actually were. Where were you Professor Lupin?"

"I had just arrived in Germany I think, I was supposed to be talking to groups of people around the Black Forest."

"That basically matches my understanding of where you were, though your 'groups of people' were in fact a rather _specific_ group… Would you like to know where my parents' _true_ friends were that day Professor Lupin?"

Lupin was beginning to see where this was going and growled. "_Where?_"

"All my parents' _true_ friends were at Gringotts in London performing formal Godfather and Godmother rituals with me, plus Neville and Daphne Greengrass because our parents became each other's godparents that day… and Luna Lovegood's mother became my Godmother and my parents became Luna's Godparents while she was in the womb because everyone present agreed that the ritual was still valid that way and the dangerous times made it all the more important to perform it."

"I will concede that that was one specific day and even though others with half as much lead time as yourself, such as Neville's parents, were able to make the necessary arrangements to get out of work and other commitments and ensure that they were present to perform what were regarded as extremely important rituals to commit themselves to assume responsibility to care for Neville, Luna and myself if anything were to happen to our parents, there _may_ have been circumstances beyond your control which forced you to go to Germany, even though my parents did not believe that there were…. For the sake of argument, where were you from the First of November Nineteen Eight One to the First of September Nineteen Ninety Three Professor Lupin? Or if that is too general a question, if you were such a good friend of my parents, why didn't you attempt to locate me and check whether I was okay even _once _in the nearly twelve years between when I was dumped on my Muggle Aunt's doorstep in the middle of the night in November Nineteen Eighty One and when you appeared on the Hogwarts Express on the First of September this year…. On your way to start a new job, working for the very one who dumped me on that doorstep in Nineteen Eighty One to be used and abused by my relatives until I turn seventeen? For that matter, why were you the only teacher I've _ever_ seen riding on the Hogwarts Express? Were you supposed to begin grooming me on the train but got stymied by my going into a magical coma after that dementor tried to kiss me?"

Harry's voice had been getting louder and louder as he got caught up in his rant, so by the time he finished they had attracted quite a crowd, who were all listening avidly. Some of the ones listening had managed to connect the dots and started whispering about the fact that Dumbledore had left Potter on a Muggle doorstep to be abused until he reached his majority, and Lupin was apparently working with him. Even more students were running for the owlery now, because the earlier gossip had nothing on this!

Lupin had been getting paler and paler as Harry was shouting this at him, and when Harry finished he just turned and walked away without a word.

* * *

No-one said anything when Hermione wrapped herself around Harry, because Malfoy was still up in the owlery trying to word the letter to his father about what Potter said in the Great Hall perfectly and most of the others who would have tried to make mileage out of it were already on their way to the owlery to send their own letters.

Minerva wasn't sure that Remus had really deserved to be savaged like that in public, but she had to concede that Harry hadn't said anything untrue and Remus had supposedly been hired to teach, not harangue Harry about personal matters and try and push Albus Bloody Dumbledore's agenda down his throat. The fact that Harry had managed to control himself enough to finish his delivery before he broke down, not that he'd really broken down at all, was a bit of a worry though, because a normal thirteen year old boy who'd been through what he had had to endure wouldn't have been that controlled. She unconsciously mirrored Alfred's thoughts from the night before, that it was a good thing that Harry had someone like Hermione to anchor him.

Most of the students had enough sense to steer clear of Harry and Hermione after the events of the morning. Even Ron backed off when he saw the look in Harry's eye, because after seeing Harry laying into Professor Lupin, he was beginning to realise that Harry had changed since that thing on the Express, and that there was a good chance that he'd actually meant what he'd said yesterday about crossing him or his friends. Having his nose broken and his teeth smashed in like that had _hurt_, and he didn't want to find out what this new Harry Potter might do if he upset him again.

Of course, Draco Malfoy, or rather Draco No-Name, but he didn't know about that yet, didn't have enough sense to back off, but the teachers made him sit down or sent him out of the room when he started in on Harry because they were worried about further incidents like the one with Weasley yesterday and they didn't want to be held responsible by Lucius Malfoy for anything happening to the Malfoy scion.

* * *

It only took a day for the Death Eaters to start finding out that their vaults had been cleaned out except for a note saying that the Dark Lord was displeased that they had abandoned and betrayed him like that. Voldemort's memories had given Harry everything he needed to convince the Death Eaters that the notes left in their vaults had indeed come from their master so most of them began desperately looking for a way to escape an angry Dark Lord. The fact that those who were members of the House of Black or married to members of the House of Black were also discovering that they'd lost property and other assets that _weren't_ in their vaults only served to confuse and frighten them more.

Lucius Malfoy had managed to get the other Death Eaters to accept him as their leader after their master's fall and he had used his gold and power to run roughshod over Magical Britain for the last twelve years, but by the second day after Harry Potter woke up he and his wife were hiding in an old farmhouse that they had no apparent ties to... Because in the midst of all the notes thanking him for the party he threw each year to celebrate getting the brats out from underfoot by sending them back to Hogwarts and agreeing with Narcissa's whining that the hangover potions weren't working the previous day he had received a letter which, according to everything he thought he knew, was a message from the dead. That letter had included the proper identifiers to authenticate it as being from his master, and it was demanding that the diary his master had left in his safekeeping be delivered to him immediately, but the last he'd seen of that diary was when Harry Potter used it to trick him into releasing his house elf three and a half months ago and from the state of it then, whatever special properties it had had obviously been destroyed!

His problems didn't end there though, because when he rushed to Gringotts to clean out his vault in preparation for collecting Draco and running away, the only thing left in their vault was another message from his master saying that the contents of his vault were merely the first thing he would be forfeiting for abandoning his master they way he had, as well as reiterating that his master wanted his diary returned immediately. That was why he and Narcissa were currently hiding in that squalid farmhouse while they desperately tried to scrape together enough gold to escape.

However that wasn't going very well either, because nearly every time he contacted someone and told them that they had to repay the gold he'd lent them immediately, the response that came back was that they'd gone to Gringotts to get the gold but their vaults had been emptied (_by the Dark Lord!_ was usually included in the notes and not many of them had had enough sense to put that in code). Eventually he and Narcissa decided that the only way for them to get the gold they needed to escape before the master came to get his diary and killed them…. eventually…. Lucius was under no misapprehensions about the possibility of his master giving him a merciful death, he would be made to suffer through what would seem like a lifetime of agony before he was allowed to die…. Would be to get Sirius Black tried and convicted so that they could _finally_ claim the Black fortune.

Narcissa's cousin Sirius Black was supposed to have died in Azkaban, but he not only somehow survived the dementors' attentions for twelve years, he'd managed to escape! This would have been so much simpler if Bagnold had just given Black the sham trial she was supposed to with the evidence they set up back in Eighty One, because that would have removed him from the line of succession leaving Draco, as the only surviving male Heir to the House of Black, to inherit the Black titles and fortune when the old man finally died in Ninety One. But no, Crouch or Dumbledore (they said it was Dumbledore, but that didn't make any sense) had decided that putting Black on trial would complicate things too much, so they and Bagnold signed an executive order to have him sent directly to Azkaban. There was currently a kiss on sight order out for Black, but it had been over a month now and no-one had seen him, and with the Dark Lord becoming active Lucius couldn't afford to wait any longer so he'd _have_ to get Fudge to force Black's trial through immediately so they could get him sentenced on the basis of the 'evidence' that Fudge and his team had recorded at the time and Draco could inherit. Fudge would of course try to play him along for a while to get more gold, but he couldn't pay _any_ serious bribes at the moment, so the best way to handle the useless little Flobberworm would be to spin him a line about having very little time to secure the deal of a lifetime but he needed more gold than he could pull in from his normal sources in time (the number of his associates visiting Gringotts in the last day or so would support that story), then promise him ten times what he would ask for if Black's sentencing was pushed through in a hurry so they could use the Black gold to seal the deal before it was too late.

With the decision made, Lucius got himself cleaned up and Flooed to the Ministry, slipping in via a back office so that he wouldn't be seen because if anyone told the master he was there he'd probably be grabbed and dragged before the Dark Lord before he could say Boy Bits. Luckily Fudge's secretary knew that Lord Malfoy was to be shown straight in as soon as he arrived so Lucius was in and out in less than twenty minutes with the promise that Sirius Black would be tried and convicted that week. He left Fudge dribbling on his robes as he dreamed about everything he could buy with the massive pile of gold this would get him.


	4. Every Dog Has Its Day

**Poor Delores, everyone is so unkind to her…. Hmmm, I wonder whether Billy Connelly could teach a giant that trick with a frog and a straw? "Tell Laura I love her…." ;^)**

**I realised that I'd left out the description of a key device my story relies on in regard to the Wizengamot when I referred to it in chapter one so I went back to add that description (****the Stone of Truth ****is ****a large crystal that the magic of the Druids Council and subsequent Wizards Council and Wizengamot were anchored to, it allowed the magic of the Wizengamot to interface with the family magic of those touching it to determine their standing and voting rights in the Wizengamot****).**

**Another clarification I should probably make is the reference to 'Associated Houses and Clans', these are made up of secondary Houses****** and Clans** that have become part of the primary House and Vassal Houses and ******Clans **that have sworn fealty to any of the Noble Houses that make up the core family. Vassal Houses and ******Clans** tend to make up the majority of the Associated Houses and ******Clans**.**

**I also made two minor changes in that Andromeda was not actually disowned as most of the family believed as the story needs her to still be a Black, and Narcissa had too much of a hangover from a '****getting rid of the kids' ****party the night before to recognise the fact that she'd lost the Malfoy and Black Family Magic when Sirius called for the dissolution of her marriage and cast her out of the House of Black.**

**Usual Disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

As soon as Lucius left, Fudge called his Senior Undersecretary in…. He shuddered at the thought of having that creature _under_ him, because while he'd tended to lay with any witch he could until he became Minister and Lucius educated him on the importance of maintaining appearances, he did have _some_ standards, and he'd often wondered whether Delores admitting to the dirty little secret of having a Muggle mother was really a way of covering up the fact that her mother was actually some sort of toadlike creature because that was what she looked like. Be that as it may, Delores' complete lack of scruples and willingness if not eagerness to do those things that more squeamish or moral types would find repugnant were useful traits to have in an assistant.

He filled her in on what he needed done and stressed the urgency of having this matter attended to _today_, then sent her on her way before her simpering and faked little girl's voice made him hex her. He then called John Dawlish in and made sure that he knew how to play his part before he called Amelia Bones to his office. He just thanked his lucky stars that he had kept John around to do his dirty work, because Lucius told him he wouldn't get one knut of the gold he'd promised him for getting this done in a hurry if he didn't keep his name out of it completely. Lucius was apparently worried that people would challenge his son inheriting the Black titles and fortune if there was any evidence of his involvement in getting Black out of the picture.

* * *

"Ah Amelia, thank you for coming so quickly… Time is of the essence here so I will get straight to the point…. John and I were talking about this Sirius Black business and I have discovered something which could cause the Ministry a serious problem. You see John was the Auror who arrested Black in Nineteen Eight One, and he has just recalled that Black wasn't tried before he was sent to Azkaban. I know that they were terrible times at the end of the war, but I don't know what Millicent, Albus and Barty were thinking, sending him to Azkaban without a trial. There's no question of his guilt of course, I was there myself that day, directing the Department of Magical Accidents' operations, and I heard some of the statements being given before the witnesses were obliviated…. But him being imprisoned without a trial could create a serious problem for us, because if the Noble Houses ever discovered that the Heir to a House as important as the House of Black was kissed without having been formally tried and convicted, the Ministry would look very bad…."

He tried to put project a more serious demeanour, but he just looked constipated. "Therefore I have decided to take steps to correct the errors of the previous administration, and I have called for a Closed Emergency Wizengamot Session this afternoon to hold Black's trial and have him convicted as he should have been twelve years ago. Albus obviously has a conflict of interest in this matter as he signed the order to have Black sent to Azkaban without a trial, so Delores and I, and yourself, will be presiding over the trial….."

This was the first time in her life Amelia had ever had the urge to kiss anything as slimy as Fudge…. She'd been wracking her brain, trying to come up with a way of getting this trial scheduled and here he was, pretty much handing just what she'd been trying to get organised to her on a plate… _today_! It was _almost_ exactly what she needed, and she was pretty sure she could make it that yet...

"Do you really think it's wise for you and Delores to be involved Cornelius?"

"What do you mean by that Amelia?"

"Well as you said, the Noble Houses would be up in arms if the Heir Apparent of one of the two Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses was kissed without being formally tried and convicted, but if we do this to get around that problem, how do you think it would look to them if you and someone from your office made up two thirds of the panel who convicted him, just before he was kissed?"

"Oh Merlin, I had not thought of that! But how can we do this then? Albus is certain to muddy the waters and stop us getting the matter resolved quickly."

"Oh I quite agree that Albus shouldn't be involved Cornelius, the fact that he signed that order is enough to demand that he recuse himself. There would be nothing remiss in my sitting on the panel, in fact as the Director of the DMLE I _should_ be involved in a case of this nature, but I think it would be better if the other two members of the panel were senior members of the Wizengamot who aren't associated with either the current Ministry or Albus, the question is who?… _Yes!_ They would be perfect for this!... Lord Ogden and Regent Longbottom are both long standing and well respected members of the Wizengamot with reputations for fairness, but Lord Ogden's Heir and his family were killed by Death Eaters in the war and Regent Longbottom's Son and Daughter in Law are currently in Saint Mungo's Long Term Care Ward because of the Lestranges and Barty Junior, so neither of them should have any problem with convicting a high ranking Death Eater like Black on the basis of the evidence."

"Yes, yes, that's a splendid idea Amelia! Contact them and do whatever you have to to make sure that they sit on the panel this afternoon!"

"And there is something else that could help us cover up the fact that the whole purpose of this is to convict Black Cornelius..."

"Oh? What is that?"

"Well I've recently discovered a number of other Death Eaters that haven't been tried yet either. I haven't said anything before this because I wanted to get all the facts together first, but if we brought _a number of_ Death Eaters to trial because we've just discovered that they slipped through the cracks at the end of the war, it would divert the attention from Black."

Fudge looked thoughtful, but shook his head. "No, that _is_ a good idea Amelia, but I'm afraid that we can't take the risk of Black being kissed before he's convicted, his trial _has_ to be today."

Amelia smiled at him. "I'm sure I can get at least some of them there for the trial today Cornelius, of course the more we have there, the better it will look, but even a few will help take the focus off Black's trial."

That had him nodding. "Alright Amelia, if you're sure you can do this without delaying Black's trial, you have my approval to add their trials to this afternoon's session…. As you said it will help us cover up the fact that we're trying to get Black's trial out of the way before he's caught and kissed."

Amelia nodded. "Well I better get moving if I'm to get everything organised in time Cornelius."

"Yes, yes, I'll leave you to do what you have to. I will see you at the trial..."

Amelia cut him off. "Are you sure that's a good idea Cornelius? As we discussed, it will look better if you are not connected to Black's conviction in any way."

That stopped him and he thought for a minute. "Yes, you may have a point there…. Alright, I'll leave it in your capable hands Amelia, just remember that this matter _has_ to be resolved today."

"Don't worry Cornelius, with the evidence we have…." She held up the folder he'd handed her. "It should be a clear cut decision."

With that she took her leave, and got out of there before she lost the fight to hold in her laughter.

* * *

As soon as she got back to her office, Amelia called Saul and told him to make sure that Sirius, Pettigrew and the other key Death Eaters he had in the holding cells down there would be ready for a Closed Emergency Wizengamot Session in a couple of hours. Then she called Tiberius and Augusta and got their agreement to sit on the panel with her in the session called for this afternoon so that they could get Sirius exonerated and make sure Pettigrew and the rest got their just deserts. They'd already questioned all of them, _including_ Sirius, under Veritaserum and collected memories of all key events and evidence, and most of their friends and allies had come in and gone through the same process they did to reset the voting rights for their houses. Augusta and everyone else they suspected of being or were at all likely to be interfered with by Albus Dumbledore had been scanned for and cleared of any compulsions, potions and the like that had been found, so most of them were angry and spoiling for a fight now that they knew what had been done to them.

Amelia also called Minerva to make sure she got Harry out of class by the time the Wizengamot Session was scheduled to start so that he would be ready to come through and provide his memories of what happened in Nineteen Eighty and Eighty One if they needed more evidence to convince the Wizengamot of the respective guilt or innocence of the parties involved.

After that she contacted Sirius' cousin Andromeda Tonks and made sure she was ready to represent Sirius at his trial that afternoon. Andromeda was a barrister who worked in both the magical and non-magical worlds and she used her impressive knowledge of the laws and structure of Magical Britain to quickly come up with a cover story which would hide Amelia's involvement in Sirius' rescue.

Magical Britain still had most of its early laws on the books, and one of them stated that members of the old families were honour bound to grant sanctuary to anyone who could legitimately claim family ties with them when it was formally requested and they could not be prosecuted for doing so, so Andromeda stated that Sirius had come to her and used that law to claim sanctuary after he escaped Azkaban to track down and capture Pettigrew…. She also stated that she had taken Sirius to Gringotts to be formally accepted as the Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, to put him in a better position to get a fair hearing in the Wizengamot when they presented proof of his innocence.

As the new Head of the House of Black, Sirius had called for the dissolution of the marriages of any members of the House of Black to followers of Voldemort, cast any followers or supporters of Voldemort out of the House of Black and recalled everything rightfully belonging to the House of Black that had been given by the House of Black as part of dowries or gifts to its sons and daughters, and any monies accrued as a result of what was gifted. While he was at it he'd allocated the Black titles that he'd taken off Andromeda's sisters Bellatrix and Narcissa to her because it would infuriate them. According to the story they used, she'd snuck Sirius and Pettigrew into the Wizengamot session with her inside a shrunken multi-compartment trunk and notified Amelia that she had them when she arrived in the chamber (The Closed Emergency Wizengamot Session notices sent out were charmed to serve as entry passes to the Wizengamot chamber for the session, so the only way to get into the session was if you had the notice you were sent in your possession or were right next to someone who did. They were also charmed with a compulsion not to talk about the matter with anyone outside of the recipient's immediate family as Closed Emergency Wizengamot Sessions were supposed to be kept secret.), because she'd received the summons to attend the Closed Emergency Wizengamot Session that afternoon which was sent to holder of the title which had previously been allocated to her sister Narcissa Malfoy as part of her dowry…

The majority of the Wizengamot members had never bothered making a proper study of the history of Magical Britain or the Wizengamot, so they couldn't understand how Andromeda could have received a Wizengamot notification meant for a sitting Wizengamot member, but it was quite simple really. The structure of the Wizengamot had been driven by the Noble Houses who viewed their Noble status as all important, so the Wizengamot seats were tied to the highest titles associated with the members' Houses and the Wizengamot notification system used a magical artefact similar to the one that sent out the Hogwarts letters so any notices were sent to the holders of the Houses' highest title. The title in question had been reclaimed by the House of Black when Sirius called for the dissolution of her sister Narcissa's marriage to Lucius Malfoy and cast her out of the House of Black and subsequently re-allocated to Andromeda. The Head of the House of Malfoy had not updated the House of Malfoy's details by re-authenticating himself to the Wizengamot system via the Stone of Truth since the dissolution of their marriage, so the records still identified what was now Andromeda's title as the highest title of the House of Malfoy and the notice for the Malfoy seat was sent to Andromeda.

What it came down to was that there were enough verifiable details to make Andromeda's story plausible to anyone who understood the old ways, and there were enough of them in the Wizengamot to get it accepted. It was also perfectly legal under the old laws so no-one could have her charged for giving her cousin sanctuary, and the current Director of the DMLE knew that even if the Minister and his toadies didn't.

* * *

Amelia looked around the Wizengamot chamber in satisfaction as they got closer to the scheduled start of the Closed Emergency Wizengamot Session, because Umbridge had obviously had someone in the Wizengamot Administration Serves grab and destroy the notices for Dumbledore, Bagnold, Crouch and anyone who would be expected to abide by what Dumbledore would have wanted done in the session when the artefact created them as very few of Dumbledore's cronies were in the chamber. There were also very few Death Eaters there, but she mainly put that down to the fact that 'the letters from the Dark Lord' that Harry had had left in their Gringotts vaults probably had most of them hiding under their beds at the moment, as being fined for failing to attend an Emergency Wizengamot Session was nothing compared to the possibility of being found and dragged in front of the Dark Lord to be punished for abandoning him.

As a result, there were barely two thirds of the Wizengamot members present for this closed session, so with the votes of their houses, and the fact that Griselda and Saul currently held _all_ voting rights controlled by the Houses of Potter and Black, that meant that Sirius' exoneration was almost guaranteed….. She stopped to think about how else they could use this situation to their advantage and dashed off to have a quick word with Griselda, Tiberius, Augusta and a few of the others before the session started, as they'd be stupid not to make the most of it while the odds were in their favour like this.

In response to Amelia's request for a believable way for Andromeda to get Sirius and the Death Eaters into the Wizengamot Chamber, Alfred had quickly reconfigured one of his older multi-compartment trunks to hold a dozen separate and secure isolated living spaces with very basic amenities and serve as what amounted to a portable prison that could be carried in your pocket. Anyone who saw or heard about it would probably just shake their heads and say something about it not being surprising that the Blacks would have something like that but Amelia thought what he'd come up with was ingenious and had asked to have it after they finished the session because something like that would be very useful to her Aurors, in fact she'd asked Alfred to make her several more like it…. It would be many more if she had her way, because from what Alfred told her the magical prison spaces in this trunk were potentially more secure than Azkaban, especially if they put one of these trunks inside a secure space in another trunk and used a fidelius charm to hide the knowledge of where it was.

Another thing that Sirius had reported about his time in the trunk was that he had been cut off from _everything_ outside, including the Black Family Magic, while he was inside the... for want of a better term isolated cell space that Alfred had created. It hadn't effected his personal magic, but even the short time he was in the trunk had been very disconcerting and he could see it making those who had to draw on their family magic to shore up weak personal magic very weak and disorientated. Amelia thought it sounded like the non-magical descriptions of the effects of being in solitary confinement on prisoners, which in her view was just what they wanted for dangerous prisoners like Death Eaters.

Andromeda had taken the prison trunk to the Department of Mysteries and Sirius, Pettigrew and half a dozen other Death Eaters that they'd captured in the Ministry and other low places they hung out in were transferred to separate living spaces in the trunk before Andromeda headed to the Wizengamot Chamber. The trunk was handed off and magically keyed to one of Amelia's trusted Aurors in the cells off the main chamber where they normally kept the ones waiting to be tried.

Life had made Alfred more than a little paranoid, so except for the trunks he sold to fools who were too lazy to bother with sensible security precautions, the keys for the locks on his trunks wouldn't work for anyone but the one who's magical signature the trunk had been keyed to, what the non-magical world called two-factor authentication. This also meant that if even if they were left unlocked, only the one the trunk was keyed to could open them from inside or out, and they had fun telling the Death Eaters that trying to break out could have the effect of destroying the space they were being kept in, which would mean that they'd cease to exist. Death Eaters were generally bullies who enjoyed inflicting pain and suffering on others with no expectation of anything ever coming back on them, so the concept of their existence being snuffed out if they tried to break out of their magical prison terrified them.

* * *

When the session was declared started, there were questions from some of the more conservative members about why the Chief Warlock wasn't sitting on the panel, and Amelia was happy to announce that the Minister had felt, and she agreed, that Albus Dumbledore would have to be made to recuse himself from this session due to a conflict of interests in regard to one of the more controversial parties being tried here today, Sirius Black.

She had even more fun when she announced. "Duke Black's trial was to be the first item on the agenda for this session, but new information has been brought to my attention which has bearing on Duke Black's trial so it has been agreed that a previously unknown Death Eater will be tried first, Peter Pettigrew."

The Wizengamot exploded into a cacophony of shouts and questions that it took them over fifteen minutes and several deafening blasts to shut up. When some semblance of order had been returned to the chamber, Griselda Marchbanks stood and waited to be recognised (as they'd planned).

"I believe that many of us must have misheard you Director Bones, because it sounded like you referred to Sirius Black as Duke Black, and stated that a dead hero, Peter Pettigrew, was both a Death Eater and here today to be tried?"

"No, you did not mishear me Countess Marchbanks. Minister Fudge recently discovered that Sirius Black had not been granted his right to prove his guilt or innocence through a trial in front of his peers before he was given a life sentence in Azkaban. While Minister Fudge has stated that he was convinced of Sirius Black's guilt on the basis of the statements he heard being given when Black was arrested, he was not prepared to allow this travesty of justice to continue and called for a trial to be convened in this session. The obvious controversy of this trial is the reason that it was convened as a closed session….." It galled her to have to make Fudge sound good here, but it helped the process and buttering him a little up here would make him easier to deal with.

"As I'm sure that someone like you would know Countess Marchbanks, a member of the Houses of Magical Britain's place in their lines of succession remains untouched unless they have been officially removed by their Head of House or lawfully convicted of a serious crime here in the Wizengamot Courts, so as Sirius Black was never tried and convicted, he remained the Heir Apparent to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black up until his Grandfather, Duke Arcturus Black the Third, died in Nineteen Ninety One, at which point he became the nominal Head of the House of Black, pending his formal acceptance by the Black Family Magic…."

"This is where a most unusual twist comes into this story Countess Marchbanks, because as the Wizengamot Members were arriving for this session, I was approached by Baroness Andromeda Tonks of the newly elevated Noble and Ancient House of Tonks. Baroness Tonks was born into the House of Black but as you may remember she was rejected by most members of the House of Black because she refused to accept the marriage to Lucius Malfoy of the Minor House of Malfoy that was arranged for her by her parents, instead choosing to elope with her beau, the Muggle Born Edward Tonks. The new Missus Tonks' parents disowned her and demanded that she be cast out of the House of Black, as did many other members of the House of Black because of her new husband's blood status... While he may have allowed them to believe that this had happened however, from what Baroness Tonks told me and the Stone of Truth confirmed, the Head of the House of Black did _not_ cast Missus Tonks out of the House of Black, instead he sponsored the discovery and reactivation of a long extinct Ancient Druid House which Mister Tonks was qualified to claim to make him a Laird, then accepted them as vassals of the House of Black to elevate the status of his Great Niece's new husband's House and put them under the protection of the House of Black. Further proof that Duke Black held very different views on blood status and what dishonoured the House of Black to most members of his House was shown when his own Son and Daughter in Law disowned his eldest Grandson Sirius Black the Third and demanded that _he_ be cast out of the House of Black, because Duke Black actually removed his son Orion from the House of Black's line of succession and made his Grandson Sirius Heir Apparent to the House of Black…. Though this may in part have been because he believed that the Black Family Magic would not have accepted his son as Head of House because his views on key issues were diametrically opposed to those upheld by the House of Black."

"Forgive me for telling what appears to be a rather long and involved story that on the face of it has little relevance to the matters at hand Countess Marchbanks, but if you will bear with me for a little longer you will see that it is all _quite_ relevant…."

"It is well known that Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban soon after Minister Fudge's annual inspection of the prison in July this year and from what he was heard saying about 'He's at Hogwarts', it was commonly believed that Sirius Black escaped with the intention of finishing the job of killing off Harry Potter… However, from what I have been informed here today and the evidence I have been shown, this is incorrect. I have been informed that Sirius Black actually escaped to _protect_ Harry Potter, because he saw something in a picture on the front page of the Daily Prophet Minister Fudge was carrying as he did his inspection which convinced him that Harry Potter was in danger from someone who had managed to insinuate himself into Hogwarts and therefore had access to Harry Potter when he was there."

"I will leave the full story to come out when the evidence is being presented, but Sirius Black managed to capture the one he believed represented a serious threat to Harry Potter and then formally requested sanctuary from Missus Tonks under the old laws, as she was the only member of the House of Black that he trusted. Missus Tonks took him to Gringotts to be formally accepted as Head of the House of Black by the Black Family Magic to give him a better chance of getting a fair hearing when he appeared here in front of you, which I am assured he had every intention of doing. The Stone of Truth has confirmed that Sirius Black _has_ been accepted by the Black Family Magic as Duke Black, Head of the House of Black, which is why I am referring to him as Duke Black…."

"Upon being accepted as Head of the House of Black, Duke Black called for the dissolution of the marriages of any members of the House of the House of Black to followers of the self styled _Lord_ Voldemort, and that any members of the House of Black who were _Lord_ Voldemort's servants or followers be cast out of the House of Black, on the basis that new evidence showed that they had brought shame on the House of Black by willingly allowing themselves to be marked as slaves of a pretender who was not what he claimed to be and were serving him as slaves. The Black Family Magic obviously agreed with Duke Black's position on this because the marriages of several children of the House of Black were indeed nullified and even more members of the House of Black were formally cast out, with everything rightfully belonging to the House of Black being reclaimed by the family magic…."

"The new Head of the House of Black then allocated the titles that had previously been allocated her sisters in their dowries to Missus Tonks in an attempt to make some form of amends for the abuse she has been forced to endure from them as a result of her refusal to accept the marriage their parents arranged for her, and even more so for marrying someone who was Muggle Born. The Baroness title that had previously been allocated to her sister Narcissa was the highest title associated with the then Noble House of Malfoy, so the House of Malfoy's notice for this Closed Emergency Session was sent to the current holder of that title, Baroness Tonks, and she decided that this would be the best chance to safely deliver her cousin, Duke Black, and the Death Eater who has been hiding in his rat animagus form for most of the twelve years since he betrayed his friends and killed a number of people, Peter Pettigrew, to the Wizengamot to get the trial Duke Black was denied nearly twelve years ago…. Does that answer your questions Countess Marchbanks?"

Griselda couldn't hold back her smirk at the expressions of shock on most of the Wizengamot Members' faces. "Yes, thank you Director Bones, I presume that we will being seeing proof of the information you have been given?"

Amelia nodded. "Certainly Countess Marchbanks. Duke Black has freely offered to testify under Veritaserum and supply memories of any and all events that are relevant to the matters at hand. As you know, this means that no one below his rank, which includes everyone else in Magical Britain except Harry Potter, has right the refuse to testify under Veritaserum or provide memories in this session as a higher ranking personage has freely consented to do so. We also have another source of evidence in these matters if necessary, as the Healers at Saint Mungo's have advised me that after he was partially kissed by a dementor on the Hogwarts Express a few days ago, memory blocks that had been placed on Harry Potter were released and he has actually recovered his memories of what happened on the night of Samhain Nineteen Eighty One among other things. The Healers have taken copies of some of those memories and have hidden them away in case anything is done to remove them from Mister Potter before the truth comes out as what they saw in those memories was, in their words, quite shocking."

Griselda nodded grimly, saying "Thank you Director Bones, I look forward to seeing this evidence." before she sat down.

* * *

Seeing Dumbledore's actions in Pettigrew and Sirius' memories sparked more cries of outrage from the more conservative members of the Wizengamot who refused to believe that the Leader of the Light would ever do what they were seeing, so Amelia decided to play the Harry card, sending one of the Aurors who had been with her the day Harry woke up and was a designated Officer of the Court (only designated Officers of the Court could leave a Closed Emergency Session of the Wizengamot before the session was officially finished) to use the trunk portals to go through to Minerva's office and bring Harry back to testify if necessary. She also asked that they bring back all the memories that Harry had recorded, and Lily and James' wills so that they could use them to throw the kneazle among the pigeons if the opportunity to do so presented itself.

While they were waiting for Kingsley to return with Harry, they pushed the vote through to have Sirius exonerated and accepted to his seat as Head of the House of Black. Amelia also formally cancelled the kiss on sight order, though they had to get the Minister's office to actually rescind the order and send the dementors at Hogwarts back to Azkaban. She was planning to use the expected arguments about that to get the Wizengamot to push through the vote for all the dementors to be destroyed and the prisoners of Azkaban transferred to Alfred's magical prisons in a secret location so Azkaban could be shut down once and for all. With any luck, Harry would be able generate enough sympathy in regard to his ordeal for them to get Umbridge forced to testify under Veritaserum about how those dementors ended up on the Hogwarts Express because Amelia didn't believe for a minute that dementors would stop the train and specifically hunt Harry down to try to kiss him unless they had been given orders to do so… Fudge wouldn't take a risk like that himself but she could definitely see the toad doing it.

They also had to decide the punishment for Pettigrew and the rest of the Death Eaters they'd caught, but if her other plan to get Dumbledore ejected from the Wizengamot worked, she didn't think it would be difficult to get the vote passed to get most, if not all, of them put through the Veil of Death for what they'd done….. That went for most of the Death Eaters currently in Azkaban too, the old argument about not being able to try them again for the same crimes would be trotted out again of course, but she now had evidence that they'd done far worse than what they'd been previously convicted of and if she could get a new regime in place in the Wizengamot she'd have a far better chance of going after them for those _new_ crimes! Mind you, going by what her people at Azkaban were saying, a few of them like Bellatrix Lestrange who had lost the family magic of both the House of Black and the families they'd married into weren't holding up to the dementors very well without the family magics shoring up their own magic, so putting them through the Veil could be viewed as a mercy killing.

* * *

The Wizengamot members didn't know what to make of the boy that the Auror returned with, because he bore little resemblance to how their children at Hogwarts, the Daily Prophet and people in the Minister's office described Harry Potter. The sarcastic laugh he gave when Ernie Macmillan's Grandfather accused him of just playing up that image previously to get sympathy opened the floodgates, as Harry looked the old fool straight in the eye and said. "No, I wasn't _pretending_ to be like that to get sympathy, that was the result of the treatment that Albus Dumbledore forced on me since the night he set my family up to be killed!"

It took twenty minutes to put an end to the shouting about how he was lying, the Great Albus Dumbledore would never do anything like that. When the chamber was quiet again, Harry bowed to the bench where Amelia, Augusta and Tiberius were sitting. "Director Bones, My Lady Chief Witch, My Lord Chief Warlock… I have been unjustly accused of lying about what has been done to me and who was responsible for my treatment by lesser nobles and commoners far below my station. Therefore under the terms of the Ducal Mandate of Magical Britain I, Duke Henry James Potter Peverell, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses and Clans, call on Duke Sirius Orion Black, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and its Associated Houses and Clans, to support me in my demand to be given the right to force these lesser nobles and commoners to watch the proof of the fact that what they have accused me of is a _lie_. I also demand apologies that _I_ deem acceptable, or failing that, the right to call for any penalties I see fit, _without __restriction,_ from any whom I have identified as having made particularly offensive accusations."

Sirius stood in the Black Box and intoned. "Under the terms of the Ducal Mandate of Magical Britain I, Duke Sirius Orion Black, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and its Associated Houses and Clans, support Duke Henry James Potter Peverell in invoking the Ducal Mandate here today!"

Those who understood what was happening were shocked to see Harry demanding the full rights of the Dukes of Magical Britain, but quite aside from the fact that under the old laws they couldn't refuse him if they wanted to, they were actually looking forward to seeing these 'traditional' Pureblood Lords' reactions to learning that magic itself would obey the traditional leaders of Magical Britain. Augusta responded. "Very well Duke Potter Peverell, Duke Black. Mister Selwyn, please read out description of the Ducal Mandate so that those in the Wizengamot Chamber who are apparently ignorant of the laws of Magical Britain will understand what is required of them."

The Clerk of the Court just stared at her. "What's a Ducal Mandate?"

Amelia smirked to herself as Augusta exploded. "How did anyone as ignorant as you ever get to be appointed to the position of Clerk of the Court? Under the terms of the role, the Clerk of the Court is _required_ to have a proper understanding of the laws of Magical Britain!..."

She was interrupted by a cough from the upper benches and reined herself in enough to recognise Griselda. "Perhaps I can be of assistance here My Lady Chief Witch?" Augusta nodded tersely and Griselda cast a 'sonorous' on herself to ensure that she would be heard.

"The Ducal Mandate of Magical Britain that Duke Potter Peverell, Duke Black and Regent Longbottom have referred to is a key component of the irrefutable and incontrovertible Druid Laws that form the foundations of the Magical Laws of Magical Britain. It is not possible to have a proper understanding of the Laws of Magical Britain without understanding the Druid Laws, which is why Regent Longbottom was so perturbed when the current Clerk of the Court showed that he was obviously ignorant of such a key Druid Law, because as she stated, the primary purpose of the position of Clerk of the Court is to serve as a reference point for the Laws of Magical Britain, so a proper understanding of these laws is a pre-requisite. The rank of Duke was first introduced in Britain in the Fourteenth Century, and at that point, the three oldest and most powerful Noble Houses of Magical Britain, the Houses of Potter, Peverell and Black, were elevated to the rank of Duke..."

"These were tumultuous times, and those who were part of the Councils which directed Magical Britain, as well as many of the 'ordinary' witches and wizards of Magical Britain, were suspicious of the motives of the growing movement to replace the Councils which had faithfully guided Magical Britain for nearly two thousand years with a different form of government, so it was decided to formally bequeath the three Dukes, whose families had led the core Druids and then Wizards Councils from the early days of Magical Britain, with the power and authority to use the magical laws to directly influence the family magics of Magical Britain in times of great need if they deemed it necessary… For anyone who has studied the Muggle World, this is the magical equivalent of a Head of State's right of veto over the government on points of contention. The Ducal Mandate requires the formal agreement of all three Dukes to invoke it but the power granted when it is invoked is considerable. The Ducal Mandate has been contested and upheld by the Laws of Magical Britain several times over the last five centuries, because it has been proven that any attempts to remove it would cause a collapse of the structure of the Magical Laws that control our world. I will concede that I was surprised to hear Duke Potter Peverell invoking the Mandate under these circumstances as historically it has only been invoked in times of great crisis, but in view of the unruly mob who attacked him here for merely stating the facts as he knows them and who refuse to obey the time honoured rules and laws of Magical Britain, _and_ the fact that he has been denied any education in regard to the requirements and issues surrounding the Ducal Mandate by the very wizard that many of you appear to worship, perhaps he was not completely out of line to do so…."

"To summarise, Members of the Wizengamot, as Duke Potter Peverell has acquired Duke Black's formal support in invoking the Ducal Mandate of Magical Britain, you will now be _required_ by the Magic of the Wizengamot and your own Family Magic to watch and listen to the proof that Duke Potter Peverell is about to show you, and if he does not deem the apologies he calls for from those of you who have particularly insulted him to be sufficient to satisfy his honour, he has the right and the ability to call for anything and everything he sees fit from you as compensation for the insult rendered. There are some members of this body who have made it clear that they regard the majority of the people of Magical Britain to be no more than dirt beneath their feet. I would advise those of you who are part of this group to pay careful attention to what happens here today, because the Dukes are the _only_ ones who have the magical and legal power and authority to behave that way, and Duke Potter Peverell has shown that he is not inclined to accept that type of behaviour from any usurpers!"

Augusta nodded to her with a grim smile. "Thank you Countess Marchbanks, that was an excellent summation of the Ducal Mandate and its importance to the Magical Laws of Magical Britain. I would also like to second Countess Marchbank's warning to those Lords who feel that they have the right to behave as if they were superior to everyone else, as the only two personages in Magical Britain who _do_ have that right have been treated abominably by Magical Britain for the past twelve years, so they have little reason to temper their responses to your behaviour."

* * *

With that she nodded to Harry, giving him the floor. Harry gave her and Griselda stately bows, saying "Thank you Regent Longbottom, Countess Marchbanks….", then started with the memory of where Sirius and Dumbledore were witnessing his parents' wills and progressing through to what Agendas Dumbledore had used the votes of the House of Potter to push through since he had illegally used the Wizengamot to seal his parents' will and proclaim himself as Harry's guardian…. Harry pointed out that Dumbledore had been forced to have the Clerk of the Court manually record the votes associated with the House of Potter as the magic of the Wizengamot had never recognised his right to control those votes, which was also patently illegal. He then pointed out that Dumbledore had also made several attempts to use the Wizengamot to try and force Gringotts to give him access to and control of the Potter fortune, but he had failed in that attempt as enough of the Wizengamot had accepted that family magic could not be overridden and if it was refusing him access then he had no right to it, not that the goblins would have allowed it anyway.

Most of those who had shouted abuse at Harry were thankful that he'd accepted their apologies when they watched some of the ones who refused to accept that he could do anything to them be utterly destroyed. Two Noble and five Minor Houses ceased to exist that day, as he took away their titles, names and everything else that belonged to them with nothing more than a stated command. Those houses had believed their dirty secrets were safe until Harry told everyone in the Wizengamot what he knew…. that they had funded a significant amount of Voldemort's campaign of terror, so Voldemort had exempted them from the demand that they give him access to everything they had to keep the gold flowing…Voldemort did however keep enough dirt on them to make it easy for Harry to goad them into giving him an excuse to wipe them out…

Harry was sort of looking forward to seeing that pompous arse Ernie Macmillan find out that he no longer had either a name or a pot to piss in, because Granddad had invested most of their family fortune in Voldemort in return for the promise of being given all their competitors' titles and holdings when the Death Eaters wiped out the families that owned them. (They were a supposedly 'light' family, but like Albus Dumbledore, power, money and status were all that mattered to them and they had no scruples about what they did to increase those.) The Macmillans weren't as rich as they pretended to be as they were still trying to recover from investing so much in the losing side and spent quite a bit on maintaining their image as one of the most powerful and important Houses of Magical Britain, but they had all the trappings needed to support that image….. an Earldom, four Baronies and a smattering of Baronetcies, plus a few impressive manor houses, a couple of quite successful businesses and a few more solid ones, all of which Harry took off them along with their gold to send the message that he could bring _any_ house down, and to strip them of what they had gained from the suffering of others. Harry wasn't totally without mercy though, he left them with a couple of lesser houses and businesses that they would be able to make a living off if they worked hard enough, under a different name and as commoners because the Macmillan family name had been permanently eradicated in Magical Britain.

* * *

Even after watching Harry's memories, about half of those in the chamber still refused to believe that Albus Dumbledore would have done everything they saw and were trying to come up with excuses for why it wasn't what it looked like, but enough of them accepted the truth of what they saw for the motion to pass by a clear majority when Harry stated that Albus Dumbledore obviously couldn't be trusted to represent anything but his own interests and called for him to be struck and permanently barred from any position representing Magical Britain. Most of them hadn't considered what that really meant, so they were surprised when Augusta announced that Albus Percival Dumbledore was hereby struck from his positions as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Magical Britain's Representative to the International Confederation of Wizards and permanently barred from holding any positions where he represented the Government of Magical Britain, adding that they must notify the International Confederation of Wizards of this immediately so that elections could be held to select a new Supreme Mugwump for the ICW.

The ones that called out that she was an old fool as what she'd proclaimed would have no effect because she hadn't used Professor Dumbledore's true name started to worry when they saw her grim smile.

"Oh, but I _did_ use his true name, you see Wulfric and Brian are _not_ part of Albus Dumbledore's true name, so any decree that used them would have no effect on him. This is part of the reason he tells everyone that is his name, though the bigger part is vanity because he believes that he is much too important a personage to only have one middle name. Of course that also means that the Order of Merlin, First Class, that he was awarded for supposedly defeating his lover Gellert Grindelwald is also invalid because it was issued to Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, so he does not hold the baronetcy that came with the Order of Merlin and now that he no longer holds the position of Chief Warlock, Albus Dumbledore has no role whatsoever in the Wizengamot of Magical Britain."

When members started calling out nominations for a new Chief Warlock, Griselda stood to be recognised again and she presented Amelia's proposal that instead of replacing Dumbledore with someone else who may let the power go to his head too, they elect a panel of Chief Witches and Chief Warlocks to preside over all Wizengamot sessions and trials, with any matters of significance being presided over by a panel of at least three rather than a single Chief Warlock or Chief Witch so that any major decision was made by majority vote. She looked disdainfully at the Clerk of the Court and added her own amendment at that point, that a proper understanding of and oath to uphold the laws of Magical Britain and the regulations of the Wizengamot should be made a requirement to sit on this panel, and the Clerk of the Court position should also be filled by a member of the panel to prevent further occurrences of the laws and regulations that ruled them being broken through ignorance. This motion passed by a stronger majority than the vote to have Dumbledore removed because it made sense and his supporters didn't have to worry about the direct conflict of voting for the Leader of the Light to lose his position. Once it was passed they started accepting nominations for ones to sit on the panel, requiring them to demonstrate their understanding of the laws and regulations and agree to take the oath to uphold them to the best of their ability weeded out most nominations and they ended up with thirteen, which they thought was auspicious. The panel was made up of Griselda Marchbanks, Tiberius Ogden, Saul Croaker, Alphias Doge, Augusta Longbottom, Alastor Moody, Cyrus Greengrass, Amelia Bones, Gawain Robards, Eugene Fawcett, Hector Fawley, Andromeda Tonks and Seren Zabini… Coming from the Ministry, Legal firms and business, with ages ranging from Griselda in her mid hundred and thirties down to Seren in her early thirties, they represented most areas that made up Magical Britain, the only common factor being that their families were all old enough to be classed as 'Ancient', and had been active in Magical Britain from before the creation of the Wizengamot at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century.


	5. Oops, I Did It Again

**In 'my' worlds Goblin Silver (AKA Mithril or Myddril) has a number of special qualities, not the least of which is the fact that it is the most magically reactive and conducive metal there is, so the most magical objects are wrought from Goblin Silver, ****and ****usually ****combined**** with gems ****to be used as**** magical ****energy ****reservoirs or enhanc****ers****.**

**Okay, I know I said that I'd probably reached my limit of 'lighter shade of dark' for Snape before, but I decided that a state of 'narky but not really evil' was achievable with the right olive branch. IMHO 'enemy of my enemy' ****can be enough**** to get people to work together, ****even if they don't like each other****.**

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to anything from JKR's stories (or Jane Austin's).**

Once the Wizengamot panel had been voted in, they proceeded with sentencing Pettigrew and the other Death Eaters and as Amelia had expected, while there were some complaints, the motion to put them through the Veil of Death was passed for all of them. They had witnessed enough atrocities in their memories to accept that there was no real prospect of redemption for any of them. There were a few calls for them to be given the dementor's kiss, and once again Amelia had the urge to kiss some wizards that she normally wanted to stay well away from, as that gave her the just opening she needed to bring up the unnecessary risk that dementors represented to Magical Britain and the Statute of Secrecy.

She raised the fact that they had had to try and cover up the existence of dementors in the war due to the actions of the rogue dementors which had gone over to Voldemort and had Harry's memories of the dementor attack on the Hogwarts Express replayed…. Pointing out that there could be no valid reason for dementors which were _officially_ being posted around Hogwarts to keep Sirius Black out to stop the Hogwarts Express well away from Hogwarts and hunt down and attempt to kiss Harry Potter. There had been no reports of rogue dementors since the war and they were supposedly under the control of the Minister's Office, so the _only_ feasible explanation for them doing these things, which were totally unrelated to their official orders, was that they had in fact given different orders by someone from the Minister's Office, orders which had placed every child on the Hogwarts Express at risk of being kissed by dementors. Enough of the Wizengamot members had children or relatives at Hogwarts for them to start demanding answers when that sunk in.

The Auror she sent to the Minister's Office to ask who gave the dementors their orders to intercept the Hogwarts Express had to contend with Fudge demanding to know why he was asking, but Fudge's blustering quickly changed to throwing his Senior Undersecretary to the wolves when the Auror told him that he had been charged with bringing whoever issued those orders to answer the questions the Wizengamot had about exactly what they'd told the dementors because they put every child going to Hogwarts at risk... And if he couldn't identify who that person was, his orders were to bring _everyone_ attached to the Minister's office in any way to the Wizengamot Chamber. Fudge had enough self preservation instincts to know that he didn't want his name to be associated with anything like that, so he gave Delores up, he'd consider helping her pay whatever fines she was hit with to placate her afterwards, but she was going to be the one facing the music in front of the Wizengamot because he hadn't told her to do anything like that.

Umbridge was screeching that he couldn't treat her like this because she was the_ Senior Undersecretary to the Minister_ half the way to the Wizengamot Chamber, so the Auror just stunned her and levitated her the rest of the way. She was in the defendant's chair and wrapped in chains when she was revived, but a new outburst of screeching just had her silenced and that wasn't lifted until after she'd been dosed with Veritaserum. Her responses to the dementor questions led to her being told to describe every illegal act she'd agreed to perform and the Aurors were busy collecting the memories of what she was thinking about as she answered. By the time the Veritaserum wore off, the Wizengamot members were so disgusted by what they'd heard that no-one bothered objecting to the risk inherent in giving anyone another big dose of Veritaserum straight after they'd been dosed like that. She had earned the death penalty, whether it was by the Veil of Death or Veritaserum was immaterial.

Delores Umbridge, John Dawlish and seven other Ministry personnel were tossed through the Veil of Death that afternoon on the basis of the evidence they were forced to give, and a dozen more got sentences from five years to life in Azkaban, but Amelia struck while the iron was hot and used the proof that the dementors would eagerly attack and kiss _anyone_ they were ordered to to push the argument that they represented a serious and unnecessary threat to the people of Magical Britain.

* * *

Arguments that they needed the dementors at Azkaban to keep the prisoners under control gave her the opening she was after and she had the prison trunk brought out, getting Sirius to explain what Alfred had told her about how serious attempts to break out of the magical cells would quite probably destroy the magical space, causing anything inside to cease to exist. He also explained how being inside the magical cells isolated you from _everything_ and placing the prison trunks inside other secure magical spaces and hiding their location under the fidelius charm would make them almost impregnable prisons, and that the wizard who built this and other magical trunks for his Grandfather was still building trunks. A lot of Wizengamot members were nodding thoughtfully when Sirius said that the trunk maker's identity was protected under numerous secrecy oaths and charms to prevent anyone finding him to determine a way to get past the controls, but he should have no idea about how to find the trunks anyway because their location should be protected under numerous _other_ secrecy oaths and charms.

A lot of the Wizengamot were still resisting the notion of getting rid of the dementors and using the prison trunks to provide the requisite security, as Magical Britain was extremely resistant to change. Then Amelia pointed out that Sirius had already proven that Azkaban wasn't as secure as they had been assured it was, and that with the prison trunks, there was no longer any reason to keep spending money maintaining Azkaban. As the Wizengamot was made up from richest echelons of Magical Britain, it was them who had to bear the cost of most government spending, so the prospect of getting rid of something that cost more to maintain than Hogwarts was quite attractive.

Her next dig about the fact that most of the others incarcerated in the same area Sirius had been were rabid Death Eaters, who were by all reports were even crazier and more dangerous than they'd been when they went in there, made many of the Wizengamot members go white, as the thought of someone like Bellatrix Lestrange escaping and going on another rampage was terrifying.

In the end the motion to order the dementors back to Azkaban to be eliminated, transfer all Azkaban inmates to the prison trunks and get rid of Azkaban island was passed, not by as significant a margin as the other motions in the session, but it got through, and they finished the session. Amelia headed straight to Fudge's office with Augusta and Tiberius to inform him that Duke Sirius Black had presented himself at the Closed Session with irrefutable evidence which proved that he was innocent of all charges, so he was completely exonerated and the Wizengamot demanded that the dementors be sent back to Azkaban immediately.

Fudge was shocked and angry about the news that he would _not_ be getting all the gold that Lucius had promised him, so he said that Black had obviously confounded them and ordered them to overturn the finding and convict Black as charged. But he almost wet himself when Augusta slammed her hands down on his desk.

"It was not the Wizengamot who were confounded you greedy feckless idiot, it was _you_! Confounded by your lust for all that gold that Lucius Malfoy promised you if you got Duke Black convicted in a hurry! Oh yes, we got the whole story out of Delores Umbridge and John Dawlish, though I must admit to finding it amusing that you were so overcome with your greed at the amount he offered you that you didn't think to question why he didn't make the usual donation as an incentive to get you to move more quickly."

"Do you want to know why he didn't _Minister_ Fudge? He didn't offer you anything because he's cold stony broke! We questioned the Death Eaters who were convicted today and they told us that every Death Eater with any money has found their Gringotts vaults cleaned out, using the authority they gave Voldemort, all that was left in their vaults was a letter from their _master_ to say that he was displeased with them for abandoning them so they're all desperately trying to scrape up enough gold to escape Britain before their _master_ can find them. Now send those thrice damned dementors back to Azkaban before they try to kiss any more of our children, because I promise you, if a single child is harmed by those monsters before they are returned to that hell hole, I will see you thrown to them. You will get to see why anyone who has been too close to them loathes the filthy things, just before you die."

Fudge had gone white. "I…. I don't really know how to deal with them, Delores always does that, get her to order them back to Azkaban."

"Delores isn't available at the moment and we demand that this be done immediately! What is it to be _Minister_? Will you comply with the lawful order of the Wizengamot and send the dementors back to Azkaban _now_, or will you be their next meal?"

"_I don't know how!_ The damned things terrify me, that's why I nominated Delores to deal with them when she was appointed as my Senior Undersecretary."

Amelia looked at him in disgust and went to open the door to the office, calling Hector Fawley in.

"Alright Minister Fudge, this is Sir Hector Fawley, Head of the Ancient Minor House of Fawley and previously a member of the International Magical Office of Law. Sir Hector has been officially appointed by the Wizengamot to be your new Senior Undersecretary and you will go and officially introduce him as the Ministry Official authorised to direct the dementors right now ….."

When he just sat there looking terrified, she growled _**"Now!"**_ He left a wet spot on the seat when he jumped up to lead the way to the room where the dementor they used to interface with the horde was kept. The dementor didn't want to accept orders from a new person but Hector reminded it that it was bound by the treaty between the Ministry and the Dementors to obey the orders of the Ministry official who had been officially assigned to direct the dementors, so it passed on the order.

* * *

As soon as Amelia's people at Azkaban had confirmed that as far as they knew, the dementors had all returned to Azkaban (no-one actually knew how many of them there were or how many had been sent to Hogwarts because they didn't have any concept of numbers and trying to count them as they flew past was imprecise at best), they dragged Fudge out to Azkaban and the Warden was ordered to have all the dementors sent to their dungeons because the Wizengamot was requiring that the Minister perform a snap inspection to ensure that security had been tightened up after the escape of Sirius Black. The Warden was surprised that he didn't recognise many of the group who came with the Minister and Bones, but couldn't see any reason to question the explanation that the others were security experts that the Wizengamot had brought in…. Well not until they went down to the dementors' dungeons and burnt them out with Fiendfyre anyway.

The horrid screams and stench that were coming from the dungeons as the dementors were being destroyed made most of the prisoners in the maximum security section (which was the closest to the dungeons) snap, but the grim faced 'security experts' stunned the warden and guards before they could stop them doing serious damage to themselves, so Bellatrix Lestrange and over two thirds of the other Death Eaters died from self inflicted injuries. They didn't want to have to wade through the foul miasma of the memories of Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters who had been too rabid to get off with the 'I was imperioused!' excuse, but they would have to if they brought them back to try them for their other crimes and sentence them to be put through the Veil of Death, this way they were no longer a risk but the members of the Wizengamot would be spared years of nightmares about what they saw in their memories. Having to watch the memories of the rest of the Death Eaters, not to mention the Warden and half of the guards, before sentencing them to be put through the Veil of Death was bad enough.

At least Fudge was quiet after numerous frantic floo calls had confirmed what Augusta had shouted at him, that most of his generous supporters had disappeared, word was that the few who'd been smart, brave or greedy enough to hide gold from the Dark Lord had already left the country and the rest were desperately trying to sell off everything they still owned to try and escape Britain. Fudge's survival instinct was telling him that his only choices were to make a run for it himself, or somehow prove to the ones who now controlled the Wizengamot that he could be useful to them…

But that choice was taken away from him quick smart when his new 'Senior Undersecretary' sat him down before they left the Ministry that day to make it quite clear that he was there as his minder, _not_ his assistant. He _would_ be present at every meeting he had with anyone and he was also going to be the Ministry Official overseeing the upcoming audit of all Ministry and Ministry Officials' vaults that the Wizengamot was commissioning Gringotts to do for them. The Wizengamot's official response to the expected outcries that there was no need for any audits was going to be that they were tired of not getting any satisfactory answers to their questions about why critical departments like the DMLE kept getting their budgets cut while the departments that their funding was redirected to never seemed to do anything, the gold just disappeared…. so now they were going to find out exactly where that gold had gone to, so that it could be retrieved and put where it was needed.

The smile on Fawley's face as he said that that audit was going to kick off an in-depth review of how the Ministry was operated, and there would be a lot of changes in the Ministry as a result of that review, was frightening. It became even more frightening when that mangled mess of an ex-Auror, Alastor Moody, walked into his office unannounced a short while after the apparently crazy Fawley was holding his hand up in front of his face as if it was fascinating and talking into it in Gobbledygook, and Moody had the Potter boy with him! Moody locked him in place in his chair and then Potter did something to him, smiling grimly when he finished and saying. "Forget about telling your _friends_ about this Minister. As I presume Sir Hector has already told you, he will be present whenever you speak to anyone at the Ministry, and Director Bones is stationing a constant DMLE guard in your home for the foreseeable future to protect you and _Lady_ Fudge, due to the sudden upsurge in activity of known Death Eaters…. And it would only be embarrassing if you tried, because what I just did to you ensured that you _can't_ talk about anything you've been told about this. Oh, and you can forget about your plans of running and using all that lovely gold you've been given to start a new life with a younger, prettier and more energetic wife in another country too, because everything other than what you've been _rightfully_ paid by the Ministry is being taken back and handed over to the DMLE…. You know, the department you've been well paid to make sure didn't have the funding to do the job they're meant to properly from the day your _friends_ put you in place as Minister?"

Fudge wet himself for the second time that afternoon when Moody growled menacingly at that, then escorted Potter out.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the…. Back at Hogwarts, a furious Albus Dumbledore ordered his Deputy to bring Harry Potter to his office. He started in on them the moment they walked in the door.

"Professor McGonagall! Please explain how Mister Potter came to appear at a Closed Wizengamot Session this afternoon that I, as the Chief Warlock, was not advised of!"

"I was not advised that you were unaware of the Wizengamot session or the DMLE's visit Professor Dumbledore. I had presumed that the wards would have notified you of the arrival of the Auror Director Bones sent with a formal request from her that I, as Mister Potter's House Mistress, get him out of class so that he could provide clarification of the facts behind a sensitive and confidential matter being discussed in the Wizengamot session."

"Well I was _not_ aware of their presence here at Hogwarts, _or_ the Wizengamot session Professor McGonagall. You should have come to me before doing anything, I am very disappointed with you!"

_That_ got her dander up. "So now that ye've been caught out, ye're changin' the rules are ye? Normally ye don't want ta be _bothered_ with all the work to run Hogwarts, even though it's _ye're_ work! But now that somethin' happens that didna go the way ye' wanted, I'm ta come runnin' to ye with every little thing? No more Albus Dumbledore! If ye want ta know everythin' thas goin' on in Hogwarts, do ye're own damned work!"

He glowered at her. "We will be discussing this unacceptable attitude of your's when I have the time Professor McGonagall! For now, you are dismissed!"

Harry wasn't going to allow that, so he piped up. "Wait a minute Professor McGonagall! I am not prepared to stay here without my House Mistress being present, as per the Hogwarts Rules…. And what are Professor Snape and Professor Lupin doing here anyway?"

"Now Harry..."

"Stop! What is it with you people? I've had to point out to Professor Lupin more than once that I am uncomfortable with older men who have no familial connection with me being overly familiar, and now you're doing the same thing! I'll be talking to the DMLE if any of you tries to get familiar with me and I expect to be addressed like any other student would, as _Mister_ Potter!"

Dumbledore was pissed off now. "Very well _Mister_ Potter, Professor Snape is here because I value his judgement and Professor Lupin is here because I thought that you would be more comfortable with someone who was so close to your family present..."

"So you value the judgement of a supposedly ex Death Eater… No offence Professor, I'm just stating a commonly reported fact..." Snape nodded in snide amusement.

"Who was four or five years younger than what the Hogwarts Charter mandated as being the minimal acceptable age for professors at Hogwarts when he was hired, and immediately made a House Master, which the Hogwarts Charter mandates considerably more stringent requirements for, over that of Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout or several other professors of good reputation who were teaching at Hogwarts when Professor Snape was a student himself? That sounds like a seriously questionable judgement call on your part Professor Dumbledore…. And as for Professor Lupin, I would be more comfortable with Professor Snape… No offence Professor Snape..." Snape's smirk this time was wider, as he was beginning to enjoy this.

"As _he_ has never abandoned my family in times of crisis on the orders of the one who played a large part in their downfall…."

He paused and turned to Snape. "If it makes you feel any better professor Snape, your warning to my Mum might have worked to save her and the rest of us, if not for the fact that my Dad and Godfather were convinced that you were just trying to trick her, because they were still swallowing the shite that _someone_ was feeding them about you. I don't hold you to be totally blameless, because if you had made any sort of effort to open your eyes, look at what was going on around you and actually use your vaunted intelligence while you were at Hogwarts, rather than just blindly charging into every situation like a _Gryffindor_, maybe that _someone _wouldn't have been able to convince them that constantly being suspicious of and attacking you was the only course, but I don't believe that you were really to blame for what happened…." Snape looked grateful, but rather conflicted, as he took in what Harry said, but Harry was already turning to Lupin.

"But you, Professor Lupin, were supposed to be the brains of the Marauders. Perhaps, if you hadn't had your head so far up the Headmaster's arse, you might have thought to question why your parents would essentially call you Wolfy McWolf when your father reportedly hated _every__thing_ to do with werewolves… They didn't, by the way, if you check the Ministry records you will find that your name was changed from John Remus Lupin to Remus John Lupin just after they were killed in the werewolf attack where you were turned, and who it was who changed it, which means that any oaths you have made as Remus John Lupin aren't binding…. Or why you were the _only_ child infected with lycanthropy who was ever allowed to attend Hogwarts, even though you were entirely blameless in the only incident in the seven years you were here as a student that you ever represented a threat to anyone else, and in fact that incident was set up to lock everyone involved into the roles that _someone else _wanted them to play…. The fact that he kept sending you into the feral packs' territory on what almost amounted to suicide missions… did you _really_ believe that a _tame_ werewolf ever had a chance of convincing the packs _not_ to do the very things their alphas lived for?….. Or the fact that the Headmaster has reminded you of how much you owe him in just about every discussion you've ever had…"

* * *

Harry caught Dumbledore beginning the wand movements to stun him to shut him up, which would of course be followed by wiping all memory of this discussion from everyone's heads, but in a split second his new wand was in his hand and he'd cast a non-verbal '_E__xpelliarmus__!_' at him. The wand was wrenched out of Dumbledore's hand and flew into Harry's, but the fireworks display that was triggered the moment it touched his hand was surprising.

The wand was 'talking' to Harry and he grinned as he turned back to the dumbfounded Dumbledore. "I thank you for returning such an important Peverell Heirloom to the House of Peverell Professor Dumbledore, not that you had any intention of doing so of course. I must admit that you have done a good job of covering up the fact that you have been using the Elder Wand since you cursed your lover Gellert Grindelwald in the back to 'win' it from him. If it's any consolation, changing your old wand's appearance to match that of the Elder Wand as publicly as you did for that cover up will make it easier for you to change back to your proper wand now, presuming that you weren't stupid enough to destroy it after you started using the Elder Wand. There is, of course, no question of the House of Peverell ever giving up the Elder Wand again. I will be locking it away in the Peverell vault where it will be safe and if you ever try to curse me in the back like you did Gellert to win it from me… well let's just say that you _won't_ like the consequences!..."

He caught something in Dumbledore's expression, and a fleeting glimpse of a smug observance that he didn't know about everything else in his mind and straightened. What he was about to announce would come out when people looked into what he'd given away in the Wizengamot session anyway.

"I, Duke Henry James Potter, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor, Laird of the Most Ancient Druid House of Emrys and Chieftain of the Most Ancient Druid Clans Le Fay and Ifan by Right of Blood, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Slytherin by Right of Conquest and Blood and Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black by Blood Ritual and Blood, call for all items which have been taken from my houses to be delivered to me here and now."

Harry realised that he should have thought that out a bit more before he acted, because he was almost buried by the mountain of things that suddenly started appearing in front of him, so he had a wand dancing in either hand as he frantically shrank the items in front of him and directed them into his bottomless bag. He really tested the 'bottomless' aspect of the bag, because that mountain of things included the baroque desk, cupboards, book cases and furniture from the Headmaster's office and chambers, Fawkes' golden perch and the throne from the High Table in the Great Hall. It took a while to go through the desk, cupboards and book cases and return all the items that had been inside them that did _not_ belong to Harry's Houses and Clans, but most of the recipients of those items were extremely grateful for their return because no-one had known what had happened to their family heirlooms and tomes full of family secrets after they disappeared in most cases decades before. Very little was returned to Albus Dumbledore from the mountain of things that came to Harry when he issued that perhaps overly hasty command, because very little of it was in his rightful possession, and some of that which was was passed on to the DMLE because it was evidence of criminal activities. The vast majority of what _was_ returned to Dumbledore was the mountain of hideous and rather expensive robes he'd had made for himself, each as tasteless as the last. There was no reason not to return them to him that night, because no-one with any taste would be caught dead wearing any of them, and the idea of _intentional_ bad taste balls hadn't caught on in Magical Britain yet.

Looking at the angry expressions around the office, Harry shook his head. Dumbledore was of course furious because nearly everything in his office had disappeared, and he'd caught sight of other things he'd had in his chambers and elsewhere so he knew that it would be a similar sight when he checked there. He'd also had his dirty secrets uncovered and been stopped before he could wipe that knowledge from the four of them, which was definitely going to hurt him. Professor McGonagall was obviously furious about the treachery Harry had exposed, and more than a little angry about her own unknowing assistance in the machinations that had pushed the Marauders and Severus to the point they had. Snape was also furious as his keen intellect used Harry's revelations to make sense of what had happened over the past twenty years or so, he wasn't at _all_ happy about being played like a fiddle by that meddling old bastard. Lupin was the one Harry was the most disappointed with though, because even after Harry had pointed out some very obvious and rather large holes in the stories he'd been swallowing from Dumbledore for most of his life, his expression made it clear that he was denying the facts that had been presented as he still believed that the sun shone out of Albus Dumbledore's bum.

Harry used something Voldemort had developed to ensure that Snape alone heard him as he said. "Professor Snape, come to Professor McGonagall's office in half an hour. If you wish to get free of Dumbledore and haven't done much more than is common knowledge, we may be able to help you do that."

Snape gave him a sharp look, because he recognised the technique he'd used, but nodded solemnly, he obviously couldn't trust Dumbledore and Lily's son had shown more integrity and resourcefulness in the last few days than he'd ever seen before.

Harry turned back to Dumbledore to make one last dig before he left. "There's something else that I am required to advise you of Professor Dumbledore…. All of your vaults, properties, businesses and business holdings have been seized until such a time as it can be determined what the proper restitution to the House of Potter will be for you unlawfully selling the rights to make a mockery of myself and my family's sacrifice with those Harry Potter stories, especially as the House of Potter has not received one knut from them. It is also my understanding that you have unlawfully sold properties, businesses and business holdings belonging to the House of Potter and its Associated Houses and Clans, again without my Houses and Clans receiving anything from their sale. These will all be either returned to my Houses and Clans in the same state they were in when they were sold or their proper value, as determined by my legal and financial advisors, will be levied from you and the Dumbledore Family. Official notices are going in all major newspapers in Magical Britain and Europe to warn people that buying anything from you will most likely result in their being included in the charges for illegal activities levied against you and whatever they buy from you will be seized until it can be determined whether it was rightfully yours to sell. Anything belonging to Aberforth Dumbledore will be exempted from this, as it is our understanding that he had the good sense to wash his hands of you after you caused the deaths of your mother and sister."

With that, Harry bowed to Minerva with a smirk, and she matched that smirk as she took his arm and allowed him to lead her from the office. Snape scowled at Dumbledore and swept out after them.

* * *

When Severus Snape arrived in Minerva McGonagall's office half an hour later, his first impulse was to turn and run, because as well as Minerva and Potter as he'd expected, the office had had to be expanded because Hermione Granger, Augusta Longbottom, Griselda Marchbanks, Tiberius Ogden, Amelia Bones, Alastor Moody, Senior Auror Gawain Robards, an Unspeakable, Andromeda Tonks, Eugene Fawcett, Hector Fawley and Sirius Bloody Black were also present!

They all caught that of course, and Minerva spoke up. "Oh come in Severus! If you dinna want to take us up on the chance Harry offered you, you can leave after you hear us out, but just about everyone here is a necessary part of offering you a chance at redemption."

Snape nodded tersely and came in to sit in the only free chair, asking "You said 'just about everyone here' is necessary Minerva, may I ask who _isn't_?" as he glared at Sirius.

Minerva shook her head at him. "_Duke_ Black is most certainly a necessary part of that Severus, so if ye canna let your schoolboy grudges go, ye may as well leave now. If you _must_ know, Miss Granger is the only one not directly needed for the proceedings, but I personally believe that Mister Potter needs her here for moral support, because while he played the part well, facing up to that old bastard and the one who turned his back on his parents when they needed him took more out of him than he's willing to admit."

Snape nodded again and turned to Harry. "Whatever happens here Mister Potter, I must thank you for what you told me in the Headmaster's office, it lifted a stone from my heart that has been weighing on me since that day."

Harry just nodded, as he'd only told the man what he thought he should know because it was the right thing to do.

After they had scanned Snape and removed numerous compulsions and memory blocks going back to his first year at Hogwarts (and made him calm down as he wanted to rush out and deal with the meddling old bastard then and there) with his permission, they spent a few hours going through Veritaserum testimony and memories of everything Severus Snape had done in the war, and since. He was lucky that Voldemort had been desperate to get his hands on a potions prodigy as talented as him and the only other one with comparable skills, Harry's Mum, wouldn't have served him even if he'd forced himself to ask, so while he had tortured one of the Muggles brought in for his initiation for Voldemort's amusement, Severus hadn't been involved in the rape or murder that the rest of the initiates gleefully performed to get their Dark Marks, and Harry and Saul Croaker were strong enough Legilimens to confirm these facts when Snape dropped his shields to let them in. They also confirmed that he'd never done more than injure anyone in the few raids he went on (because Voldemort didn't want to risk his potions master), and Harry had Voldemort's memories to back up what Snape told them.

They saw the oaths that Dumbledore had forced him to give as a major problem until Harry suddenly laughed and pointed out that at most they would cause him discomfort if he broke them, because oaths couldn't really take if they conflicted with pre-existing oaths, such as the ones he'd already made to Voldemort. Saul looked thoughtful as he considered that, and then laughed as he agreed with Harry.

Amelia, Alastor and Gawain agreed that some of Severus' actions were definitely illegal and quite reprehensible, but he hadn't done anything worse than what others had already been let off for, so that wasn't a barrier to letting him off, and the fact that he'd been under compulsions that pushed him down that path mitigated _his_ guilt in those crimes. They loved it when Hermione explained the non-magical concept of community service to make amends for minor offences, and Severus willingly agreed to his community service being a contractual requirement to create potions that required his level of mastery for the DMLE, Department of Mysteries and St Mungo's as needed for the next five years. That was when Snape realised what was behind the makeup of the group in Minerva's office, because they had all the people they needed to satisfy the requirements for a Wizengamot tribunal there, and Severus' conviction and sentence to community service for his activities to date were officially recorded.

The Dark Mark would be a problem if Voldemort ever came back, but when Voldemort originally created them, he was still sane enough to recognise that the magic of the Dark Mark might expose valued Death Eaters who were acting as spies, so he devised a method to remove it. From what Harry saw in the memories, the removal was several times as painful as getting the Dark Mark in the first place, but he offered Snape the chance to rid himself of it. Amelia added her two Knuts worth at that point, saying that if Dumbledore tried to get back at him by reminding everyone that he was a Death Eater and saying that he had deceived him by claiming to be reformed, proof that he didn't have the Dark Mark could go a long way to derailing what Dumbledore was trying to do, because while many people talked about him being a Death Eater, very few had ever seen his Dark Mark.

Severus had already been inclined to have the Dark Mark removed to separate himself from the choices that had lost him the only true friend he'd ever had (even if she didn't think of him the way he did her, Lily was the only one who had ever believed in and cared about him, up until he ruined everything in a fit of pique in their Fifth Year anyway), and the idea of being able to publicly show Dumbledore to be a liar (even if he hadn't been earlier) cinched it, so he agreed.

Minerva called Poppy Pomfrey down to her office (in case Severus needed a healer), then Harry cast the spell to remove the Dark Mark. It was just as painful as Harry had expected from the memories he saw, as it effectively burnt the Dark Mark off his arm, but once Poppy had healed his arm and given him a strong enough pain potion to take the edge off, Severus thanked Harry.

Harry laughed when Severus said that he couldn't change his behaviour too much because that would give the game away…. and admitted that he didn't think he was capable of changing that much anyway…. But they were effectively on the same side now.

* * *

With that done, they went through some of the things that had been happening over the past few days (with everything that had happened, it was hard to believe that Harry had only woken up with his memories back a few days ago), and Severus decided that this would give him an opportunity to try and turn at least some of the Slytherins around a little, saying.

"I will call a house meeting first thing in the morning and ask how many of them have heard from their parents. I expect that some of them will have gotten word by now to be ready to run when their parents contact them again, because that will mean that they've gotten enough gold together to get out of the country. Telling them that many houses have lost their gold because the one they serve was unhappy with them will get the message across to most of them at least, and I'm sure the someone will explain it to ones like Crabbe and Goyle, and my Godson…."

"Draco hasn't been whining enough for Lucius or Narcissa to have told him anything yet, but they're bright enough to know that whatever they tell him will be all around the school inside an hour or two so they'll probably just turn up and take him out of school when they're ready to run…. Oh Merlin! I hope they don't just leave him behind when they run! Minerva, if the Malfoys run away without their son, I will be resigning! I can barely stand his whining when he thinks he's cock of the walk, if he finds out that he's been deserted and doesn't have a knut to his name he'll be impossible!… Anyway, I'll use their sudden change in conditions to tell them that they can't afford to get into any trouble because their parents won't be able to buy their way out any more… With your permission Minerva, I'll be casting you in the role of the Wicked Witch of the West, telling them that I overheard Filius telling you about getting word from one of his kin at Gringotts that the Death Eaters' vaults had all been cleaned out and you had an unholy gleam in your eye as you exalted about the fact that there was nothing to stop you putting them in their place now..."

Minerva smirked at that and then cackled, saying "_I___'ll get you___ my pretty and ___your little dog___ to__o!_" in a reasonable approximation of the witch's voice.

The Pure-Bloods just stared at her, wondering what she was going on about but Hermione laughed. "It's from the Wizard of Oz, a classic movie from around Nineteen Forty, we'll have to find some way of showing it here or taking you somewhere you can see it…."

Harry said "Gringotts" with a smile and Hermione agreed enthusiastically. "Of course! If they use computers there, I'm sure they can show movies!"

Severus smirked at them and continued. "Anyway, I'll use Minerva to put the fear of Hades into my students and tell them that I won't be able to protect them if they get themselves into trouble so they'll have to leave all the Mudbloods and Blood Traitors alone, at least until their parents find some way out of this mess we're in at the moment. I can also use that as the excuse for why I need to be fairer in class, which I'm sure will get me questioned by Dumbledore, because he's the one who insists that I let my Slytherins get away with everything and constantly harass everyone else…. I'm actually looking forward to that because I can tell him that Filius and Minerva know that the Death Eaters have been cleaned out so I won't be able to rely on Lucius, Thaddeus Nott or Robert Parkinson to protect me in the Board of Governors and without their protection the ones like Macmillan will crucify me…."

He raised an eyebrow at Harry, who'd just burst out laughing. Harry explained when he'd gotten himself under control. "You don't have to worry about Earl Macmillan Severus, because he doesn't exist any more..."

Hermione blurted out. "Harry! Please tell me you didn't kill him!"

Harry gave her a hug. "No, I didn't kill him Hermione, well not unless the loss of his family magic is enough to make him cark it. What I meant when I said that he doesn't exist any more is that I stripped the House of Macmillan of all its titles and assets everything associated with them and permanently eradicated the family name of Macmillan in Magical Britain, so as I said the title of Earl Macmillan does not exist any more. I left them just enough to make a living if they work hard enough, but they'll be commoners using a different name now, so I expect that Ernie Macmillan will be getting a very nasty shock tomorrow morning….." He suddenly stopped and looked at Severus, then turned to Griselda, Tiberius, Augusta, Saul, Minerva and Amelia.

"I know that Baronet titles are bought and sold all the time, can the same be done with noble titles?"

Minerva raised an eyebrow at him. "Why do you ask Harry?"

"Well we've currently got the Death Eaters desperately trying to get enough money together to get out of the country before the Dark Lord finds them and Gringott is getting ready to make offers to buy up their Baronets and holdings, properties, businesses and business holdings cheap to make sure they have nothing to come back to, but I've just realised that some of them like Nott and Parkinson have Noble titles…. If we put the screws into them enough to make them really desperate, can a Noble title be legitimately transferred by purchase in Magical Britain?"

Griselda, Tiberius, Augusta, Saul, Minerva and Amelia all looked at each other but Amelia shook her head. "I don't know, but I'll bet that the Head Goblin does."

Harry nodded and held up his hand in front of his face, activating the communications mirror built into the disillusioned wand holster he was wearing, soon after that he was asking the same question again. There must have been some sort of privacy enchantments on it because while he and Hermione could obviously hear something, no-one else could. At first Harry didn't seem happy about what he was hearing, but then an evil grin grew on his face, which was explained when Hermione asked "What's this Ducal Mandate?", and everyone who had been in the Wizengamot session burst out laughing.

Harry have her a brief summary of what Griselda had explained to the Wizengamot Members and then caught Sirius' eye.

Sirius just nodded with a shit eating grin, as did Saul when Harry asked if they could get into the Ministry via his office without being seen at this time of night, so Harry asked Gringott to have someone meet them with lists of all the titles and their asociated holdings and assets that the Death Eaters had and they descended into Minerva's trunk, once they'd put up security wards to keep everyone out of Minerva's office.

* * *

As they stood in the Wizengamot Chamber, Minerva was shaking her head a little, saying that this was an abuse of what the Ducal Mandate was created for, but Saul disagreed. "You have to stop looking at this in the terms of a traditional war Minerva. Do you deny that Magical Britain is currently in crisis?"

Minerva shook her head. "No, between Dumbledore and Voldemort, the country has been sinking ever deeper into the mire over the last twenty years."

"Exactly, now do you question Harry's motives here?"

"No, he is trying to strip power from those who have been using that power to prey on everyone else."

"So why do you think he's abusing the power of the Ducal Mandate? We were planning to try and strip the Death Eaters of their ill gotten gains so they have nothing to come back to and not enough gold to buy their way back in if they do by forcing them to sell what they have left for next to nothing, but we can't buy most of their Noble titles so they'd still have a stake in Magical Britain that they could transfer to their allies left here to give _them_ more power. This way, Harry and Sirius can use the Ducal Mandate to strip all their titles from the Death Eaters, along with the holdings associated with them and everything linked to those holdings, so once we buy up their other properties, businesses and business holdings cheap the Death Eaters will have no toehold left in Magical Britain. That way, even if Voldemort manages to come back he won't have followers left here to do his bidding. We've already gotten rid of the dementors and Amelia is getting ready to hunt down and eliminate Fenrir Greyback and the rest of the feral werewolves. Plus we're going to be getting those anti werewolf laws that Umbridge creature got through earlier this year with Dumbledore's help repealed as soon as possible so that decent witches and wizards who are afflicted with lycanthopy will be able to become productive members of our society again, which will take away most of the rest of his army. With a potions master of Snape's calibre working for us, we may even be able to find a cure for their affliction.."

Minerva shook her head again. "Don't mind me Saul, maybe it's just that nothing really changed in our world for so long and now I can't keep up with what's happening."

With that, they sat back and watched as Harry and Sirius invoked the Ducal Mandate and stripped all titles, holdings and everything associated with those holdings from Voldemort's Death Eaters and Followers, citing their following a terrorist who attacked and killed anyone in Magical or Muggle Britain who opposed him as the reason that they needed to be disenfranchised in Magical Britain. The Death Eaters only had seven Baronies between them, but there were another thirty seven Baronetcies and eight Lairds' titles that they'd claimed by right of conquest after they killed off the families who owned them, so it was a big enough block to help sway a vote in the Wizengamot.

With Gringott there to witness it, Severus was also able to claim his title as Baron Prince, Head of the Noble House of Prince and claim the Wizengamot seat that his Grandfather had held up until he died, which added a little more to their voting block in the Wizengamot. To give him the protection of a more powerful house and cover up his new alignment in the Wizengamot, he then became a vassal of the House of Potter, so the votes of the House of Prince would be cast by Griselda, as the Potter Regent.

* * *

They went back to Gringott's office first, so Harry could write letters as Voldemort to be sent out to all the ones who'd just lost their titles and holdings, reminding them that he'd told them that their vaults were just the first of the things he would be taking from them and telling them that if he found anyone trespassing on his holdings they would pay dearly. As most of their manor houses and primary businesses were located on those holdings, this was a major blow for the Death Eaters and Followers, because they couldn't risk going back to get anything that they'd left behind now.

They were banking on this latest blow making the Death Eaters all the more desperate to get whatever money they could for their remaining properties, businesses and business holdings, because they would be feeling the Dark Lord breathing down their necks by then. That was why Gringotts would be sending out insultingly low offers for whatever they had left in the morning, giving them time to get 'The Dark Lord's letters first. These offers would be framed as Gringotts acting as brokers for parties who were in possession of information that these properties, businesses and business holdings were being offered for a quick sale.

As the only ones who could know what was left once 'The Dark Lord' took everything else would be agents of 'The Dark Lord', these offers would most likely be read by the Death Eaters as a last chance to appease him. Rejecting 'his' offers would most likely be seen as a slap in the face to 'The Dark Lord', so they were expecting to buy up the rest of their properties, businesses and business holdings for just enough gold to let them and their families get out of Britain and set themselves up in a meagre existence somewhere else, at which point they would be told that the master was feeling generous, so if he didn't see them again they wouldn't be punished any further. While what they were doing was undoubtedly cruel, the idea of terrorising terrorists held a strange appeal to most of them.

That was why Severus couldn't help laughing at the threatening footnote that Harry added to the letters going to the Death Eaters who had children at Hogwarts. 'Perhaps if I begin training your replacements now, before they can be corrupted by you, they will prove more loyal. If they impress me sufficiently I may even return their titles to them in time, but they will have to prove their loyalty and willingness to make amends for their parents first.' Because like most Death Eaters, he was quite capable of translating that statement. In the Dark Lord's parlance, that meant that to have their titles returned the Death Eaters' children would have to kill their parents to prove their loyalty to the Dark Lord, and the ambitious ones would be quite willing to do that.

He recognised the particular flair for ruthlessly cutting someone to the quick that was displayed in that last message, because he'd been on the receiving end of it before, from Lily (Tuney tried to emulate it, but she never had Lily's style). James Potter and his friends were often brutal when they believed they had the right to attack someone… which they usually did…. But most sensible people had only ever crossed Lily Evans once, because when she was pushed far enough to retaliate, the wounds Lily inflicted on your psyche would take far longer to heal (if ever, his hadn't yet) and you would suffer much more from them than you ever would from the simple physical damage that the Marauders inflicted.

It would be interesting to see how the Death Eaters reacted to that threat, his bet would be that the majority of them would grab their children from Hogwarts and run in the next few days, hoping to get them away before the Dark Lord had a chance to get his hands on them and begin to train them to replace their parents. The ones most likely to be left at Hogwarts would be the older ones who may have a chance of defeating their parents, but if their parents believed that they had any chance of succeeding, it was about 50/50 as to whether they took them along as muscle to help carve out a niche for themselves somewhere else or killed them to ensure that they wouldn't be able to come after them in the future… Yes, it would be very interesting to see what happened over the next few days.

* * *

When they returned to Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione went straight into their own trunks, as Harry had had Dobby close and seal the curtains around their beds so they could use the locator runes to portkey into their beds in the morning. This meant that in the morning, they could just say that they'd gotten changed in their beds with the curtains closed and silenced so that they wouldn't bother anyone when they came in late from talking to Professor McGonagall.

In the morning, Severus had everyone in Slytherin woken up and dragged down to the common room before breakfast. As expected, being told that the Dark Lord had taken most of the Dark Houses' gold and they were still finding out what else they'd lost caused a panic. Some of the older students' reactions to being told that without their parents' gold to make problems go away, they'd need to curb their normal behaviour until things were back on a more normal footing was no great surprise either. "Did I say something funny Mister Flint?"

"You've got to be joking! I'm not going to take shit from the Lions and Badgers just because gold's a bit tight at the moment, it may cost a little more but Dad can pay people off afterwards!"

"With what, Mister Flint? From what I heard the Charms Master telling the Deputy Headmistress, the goblins are laughing about the fact that whenever anyone who served the Dark Lord went to their vaults to get gold out, their vaults were _empty_. All that was found in their vaults was a letter, apparently from the Dark Lord, saying that the contents of their vaults had been taken as part of the restitution for failing him, and that that was just the first thing he would be taking from them. So unless the Flint family still has some way of refilling its family vaults quickly, just where do you think the gold to pay people off will be coming from?"

Flint stood there doing a goldfish impersonation as it finally started to sink into his thick head that they actually may be in trouble and Severus went back to talking to the others. "So I would strongly suggest that you do as I intend to be doing until we find a way out of this predicament, keep your heads down and do what you can to stay out of situations that we don't have the gold to buy our way out of at this point."

* * *

It was interesting to watch the students at breakfast, as the Slytherins were much quieter than they normally were, their main interaction with other houses being individuals scurrying over to friends in other houses who were also from families that followed the Dark Lord and whispering furiously to them.

When Dumbledore came into the Great Hall, he was obviously angry and worried, even more so when he realised that his magnificent throne wasn't in its normal spot at the centre of the High Table. As soon as he sat down, Harry sent the wand he'd found in a sealed drawer in the desk from Dumbledore's office to a spot on the High Table beside him. Harry snorted at the baleful glare Dumbledore sent his way after he snatched up the wand and realised it was his original wand. Idiot, did he really think that Harry would give the Elder Wand back to him after he had officially reclaimed it as an Heirloom of the House of Peverell?

* * *

At least the pressure on the Death Eaters was working as planned, because by the end of breakfast, Gringott had sent word that they'd already settled the deals with a dozen of the Death Eater families to buy up all the properties etc they had left for what the 'Dark Lord' was offering, and that they'd gone white and run out after they read the final letters from the 'Dark Lord' that he gave them once the deal was settled.

If they had a dozen by the end of breakfast, at least three quarters of them should have taken up the deals by the end of the day.


	6. What's It All About Alfie?

**There is a minor implied crossover with Stargate in this chapter, in the explanation of what the Veil of Death really is in this world.**

**A few relatively minor changes in the previous chapters. When Gringott was tracing Hermione's history, he discovered links to the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff bloodlines and observed that she had Ravenclaw's brilliance and thirst for knowledge and Hufflepuff's loyalty and readiness for hard work in her, so he had her try their Head of House rings and she was accepted by them as well… I'm sure some people will complain about this but it helped them get control at Hogwarts and the line I'm going with was that no-one who tried to claim Head of House before was accepted by the family magic, just like Harry with Gryffindor and Slytherin. **

**Harry also acquired a bunch of Comet 260 brooms when he got the Nimbus and Cleansweep brooms and another thing they got off Alfred were Goblin Silver Shield holsters which included bottomless pouches, small versions of the trunks' mirror portals for communications and multiple runic portkeys to predefined runic locators that used the same principles as the portals, these also include a runic portkey version of a time turner but that hasn't been discussed yet. **

**Alfred's true name and station have also been clarified, as ****Baron Randolph Mordred Warg, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Medrawt and Chieftain of the Most Ancient Druid Clan Warg, and when he pointed out that it would take time to make the extra trunks and portkey/communicator wand holsters Harry was asking for because he only had one pair of hands, they arranged for him to accept a dozen House Elves into his family, problem solved.**

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

When Alfred heard about the blows Amelia and the others had managed to deal Dumbledore and the Ministry, he decided that this would be his best opportunity to contact Aberforth without his brother's knowledge, so he slipped into Hogsmeade, and as soon as there was a chance to talk to Aberforth alone, he took it. Aberforth was furious and wanted to wave the evidence in Albus's face so he knew what he was choking on before he shoved it down his throat, but as Minerva had thought to herself, once he got past his initial rage he accepted that Albus would win if he tried to use the evidence, so he put it away safely and pulled it out when he wanted to reassure himself that some people knew the truth and cared enough to bring him the evidence. Alfred had the ally in Hogsmeade he needed to make moving there a relatively safe decision.

It was when they told him about the Death Eaters and other foul creatures being sent though the Veil of Death that they learned something significant about Alfred's past though, because he snorted and corrected their definition of the Veil. "Are they _still_ calling it that? The Veil is no doorway to the other side, it's a gateway to oblivion!"

That of course begged the question of what the hell he was talking about, so he gave them an abridged version of his history to explain. "Albus Dumbledore got me drummed out of Hogwarts just before the Yule break in Eighteen Ninety Eight, our Seventh Year… My wand was snapped and I was expelled and banned from practising magic in Britain, but word was that that wasn't enough for him as I heard that he was trying to get me re tried and either sent to Azkaban for life or kissed by the dementors… I hadn't realised just how far he would go to get revenge on anyone who said 'no' to him. Anyway, when I heard that he was trying to get me imprisoned or killed, I packed all the family books, heirlooms and tools into the trunks I had, hid the existence of Merdrawt Castle and left for France quick smart. We had a family friend over there who was one of their most respected wand crafters, so I went to him for sanctuary, and to get a wand if I could."

"Oncle Henri wanted to retire, but he didn't have anyone to pass the secrets of his craft on to, so he made a deal with me… He would give me sanctuary, make me a wand and help me re take my OWLs and NEWTs so that I could start a new life under a new name…. If I would at least try to learn his wand lore so that it would not be lost, and get the masteries I needed to become a master wand crafter. We didn't believe that there was any great hurry, so I was apprenticed under his friends the Flamels for the other masteries that the traditional wand crafter's art required, and a few more in areas that I found fascinating, and Oncle Henri, the Flamels and I lived the good life for the next eight years or so….. But Oncle Henri died unexpectedly before I had gained my masteries to be properly accredited as a master wand crafter. I lost my way for a while, because I had loved Oncle Henri, but Oncle Nicolas and Tente Perenelle kept me too busy working on my masteries to wallow in my grief…. Then, in early Nineteen Oh Eight, Albus Bloody Dumbledore forced his way back into my life…. As you know, at least you would if you are true students of magic, the Flamels are masters of the magical arts… Oncle Nicolas is better known but Tante Perenelle is a true mistress of magic as well…"

The way he was referring to the Flamels in the present tense raised a question, but they tabled that to be asked after he'd finished his story.

"Albus Dumbledore had decided that being apprenticed to someone as famous as Nicolas Flamel would mark him as one of the great magical scholars, so he was quite insistent and was using his political connections to apply pressure on Oncle Nicolas until he agreed. There was too much risk of Dumbledore recognising me for me to stay there after he began his apprenticeship, obviously, so we quickly wound up my masteries which were close to completion and I returned to Britain. The British Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries leapt at the chance to take on Albert Corbeau, the great nephew and Heir of the respected master wand crafter Henri Corbeau, who had given up studying wand lore just short of getting his own mastery when his great uncle died, but had earned three masteries under Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel and was well on the way to getting three more, so I became an Unspeakable of the British Ministry of Magic. My field of study was movement in time and space and I spent a good deal of the thirty five years I was an Unspeakable studying what they call the Veil of Death and related artefacts in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. According to what I learned in that time, what they call the Veil of Death _isn't_ a gateway to the other side of the Veil of Death, it is a doorway to _nowhere_! According to my calculations, the other side of the Veil doesn't exist in any version of space or time known to man, or any other race that I have consulted for that matter, so as I said, it is effectively a doorway to oblivion."

The idea of that struck them dumb for a while until Hermione asked a question. "Is that really all you did in thirty five years as an Unspeakable?"

Alfred smirked at her. "No Hermione, I applied what I'd learnt from the Veil and the other related artefacts to create something that could be used to step through space from one location to another, the first version of the portals you use to move between the spaces in my trunks, and from that I developed the mirror portals that you've been using. I was getting ready to present my findings to the Department of Mysteries when one of Dumbledore and Grindelwald's followers took over the department. I obviously wasn't going to let Dumbledore and his accomplice get his hands on something like that so Albert Corbeau called the senior Unspeakables to the Chamber of Death to present his findings, explained what he'd determined about the Veil of Death being nothing more than a doorway to oblivion, then stepped through the Veil…."

Once again, it was Hermione who broke the stunned silence. "But how are you here if there's nothing on the other side of the Veil?"

Alfred smiled at her, Oncle Nicolas and Tante Perenelle would love the way this girl's mind worked. "Do you remember what I said about doing studies in movement in time _and_ space?" Hermione nodded.

"Well I was testing a more complex version of my portals with additional runic controls that allowed me to define the specific time and space that the portal will connect to. I had been keeping track of a number of unconfirmed dead wizards' identities that I could take on ever since I returned to Britain in case I needed to change who I was again, so when things came to a head in Forty Three I assumed the identity of a nondescript and friendless magical luggage maker by the name of Alfred Stowe because my family's trade had been creating magical luggage and trunks so I could step into that life easily enough…. Alfred had died in a fire back in the Twenties when the shop he was working at was burnt out, but there hadn't been enough left of him for the Aurors to be able to categorically state that he died in the fire so I created the story that I... Alfred… had somehow managed to apparate out of the fire and clear across the channel. I ended up in Paris with no memory of who I was at the time and got a job there when I was released from the hospital, but came back to Britain because it was getting too dangerous over there with the war hotting up, buying the shop and flat here cheap as the previous owner had died in the war and his relatives were in a hurry to spilt up his estate…. Then I used the more complex portal to go back far enough for there to be two of me…. Albert Corbeau who ceased to exist when he stepped through the Veil of Death and the unknown Unspeakable who walked out of the Department of Mysteries with all of my research and materials and more than a few other useful things they had in the Department in shrunken trunks in his pockets to start a new life as Alfred Stowe. Afterwards I used alchemy to permanently change my appearance to match the glamours I'd used to look like an older and more careworn version of Alfred Stowe when I bought the shop, much as I had when I became Albert Corbeau."

Alastor and Sirius both cracked up at that, as explaining that the Veil of Death was nothing more than a doorway to oblivion then convincing all the so-called experts that he had committed suicide by very publicly walking through that doorway was the perfect disappearance or prank (as Alastor and Sirius respectively viewed it).

* * *

It was Harry who asked the question that came up when he was talking about the Flamels. "Dumbledore told us at the end of our First Year that the Philosopher's Stone was destroyed with their agreement so that Voldemort couldn't use it to return to a proper body, if that was true they would be dead by now, but from the way you were talking about them they're alive. I presume that that means that they either tricked Dumbledore or everything he said was a lie, which was it?"

Alfred smiled at him. "Excellent reasoning Harry. In answer to your question, both, but for the most part Dumbledore didn't know that he was lying to you. Oncle Nicolas and Tante Perenelle have known what sort of creature Albus Dumbledore was from the day Oncle Henri convinced them to accept me as their apprentice, but just as his more prominent supporters were too powerful for them to be able to refuse to take him on as an apprentice…. Not that he was ever bright or dedicated enough to earn a mastery under either of them…. His growing political power, especially after he supposedly vanquished his lover Gellert Grindelwald in Nineteen Forty Five, meant that they couldn't afford to break their public ties with him afterwards unless they were prepared to stage their own deaths and start over as I did. Up until Dumbledore forced their hands a year ago Oncle Nicolas was not ready to consider giving up his family name, because it was an old and honoured name, so when Dumbledore came to them in early Nineteen Ninety One, claiming that he had evidence to show that Voldemort was trying to come back and that he planned to use the Philosopher's Stone to do so, they pretended to believe him and go along with him when he assured them that he was a close personal friend of the Head Goblin of Gringotts of London so they could be sure that there was no safer place in the world for the Philosopher's Stone than the secure vaults under Gringotts of London."

"Of course, Dumbledore didn't fool them for a minute, but there was no such thing as the Philosopher's Stone of legend either. What they had were stones which matched what the stories said the Philosopher's Stone looked like, but what they actually did was create a health potion which gives a quite remarkable boost in vitality… While not the Elixir of Life the legends describe, it slows the aging process markedly and keeps you in the best of health, with your wit and memories sharp…. Which is quite enough to serve much the same purpose if you are sensible and careful, which the Flamels are. They gifted me with one of the stones to keep my mind and body healthy when I returned to Britain and if I wasn't using potions to change my appearance and moving like an old man I'd still look like a wizard in his early prime… So they gave Dumbledore one of the Health Stones and told him that using the Stone to create gold required a very complex ritual that they were keeping secret because a glut of gold would ruin the economy of the Magical World. Dumbledore wasn't happy about that, but from the hints they'd dropped, he was certain that he'd successfully coerced them into leaving everything to him when they died, so he figured that he could just wait until he got their working notes when they died….. The Philosopher's Stone's base metal to gold story was nothing but wizards' lust for gold twisting what they heard into the old alchemist's myth anyway. Oncle Nicolas told me that he'd said one day that having the time to create everything they had was _as good as_ being able to create gold, and Oncle Nicolas and Tante Perenelle have indeed amassed a fabulous fortune in the centuries they have been alive, but apparently the Wizarding World just heard 'create gold' and believed that they'd been successful in creating the Alchemists' Holy Grail, much as the Health Potion became the _Elixir of Life_ in everyone's minds"

"Anyway, they gave Dumbledore what he thought was _the_ Philosopher's Stone of Legend for safe keeping, and from what I hear Dumbledore came very close to starting another Goblin Rebellion here when he spread the story that someone had managed to break into a Gringotts vault, because that threw doubt on the security of the Gringotts vaults and caused a stain on their reputation. Oncle Nicolas and Tante Perenelle put on the expected show of getting upset about the Philosopher's Stone not being as safe as he'd assured them it would be and telling him they wanted it back. Dumbledore's hubris is incredible, because he actually believed that he'd managed to confound two minds as incredible as Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel's into believing his tripe about the Stone being perfectly safe under his personal protection at Hogwarts…. They are still angry that he could actually believe that he was powerful great enough to coerce both of them into handing over the one and only copy of something that their very lives depended on….."

Alfred snorted. "As if two minds like theirs would fail to take the simple precaution of having a number of the Health Stones hidden away in places that only they knew about or could access so that they would not lose access to the Health Potions that help keep them alive and vital enough to be productive!"

"So I believe that the only outright lies in the story Dumbledore told you about the fate of the Philosopher's Stone are the fact that the Stone was destroyed, as there is no possibility that he would ever have willingly destroyed something as valuable as the Philosopher's Stone, and that Oncle Nicolas and Tante Perenelle agreed for it to be destroyed, because the last time they talked to him was when they contacted him to get another three months' supply of the so called Elixir of Life…. the Health Potion only stays viable for three or four months after it is created... about a month after the stone was supposedly destroyed and he told them that the Stone had been destroyed when Voldemort tried to steal it. Dumbledore has spent a fortune on solicitors and barristers over the last six or seven months in his attempt to force the goblins to give him his _rightful_ inheritance from Oncle Nicolas and Tante Perenelle, and they have gotten quite a bit of amusement from reading the court transcripts, especially the increasingly creative responses from his barristers whenever they're asked why their client believed the Flamels to be dead, as there had been no announcements to that effect."

Alfred shook his head with a chuckle as he remembered the fiery Tante Perenelle's outrage at the gall of the man then said. "So Oncle Nicolas and Tante Perenelle are very much alive, but I'm sure that they would appreciate it you could find a way to retrieve the Health Stone the old meddler has because Tante Perenelle especially hates the idea of Dumbledore gaining advantage from what he's stolen from them."

Harry gave an evil grin and called Dobby to him, whispering in his ear before Dobby nodded and popped away. Ten minutes later Dobby popped back in and handed him a stone that matched Harry's memories of what he'd extracted from the Mirror of Erised. He handed the Stone to Alfred with a little bow, explaining that he'd felt something that reminded him of the stone when he began sifting through what he had reclaimed from Dumbledore, but had discounted it as he'd had no reason to doubt his belief that the stone was destroyed before. Alfred burst out laughing, telling him that there was a very good chance that they'd be getting the Stone back after he told Oncle Nicolas and Tante Perenelle about this because as he'd said, the potion it produced was _very_ good for maintaining those who took it in the best of health and he expected that the Flamels would be invested in keeping people like them in good health, especially when they heard about how they were tweaking Albus Dumbledore's nose.

* * *

Harry was proven right about Voldemort's followers and supporters' fear of the Dark Lord's reaction if they didn't take up the 'offers' made, because all of the significant offers had been taken up within thirty six hours. They'd stripped away most of their gold and assets, and more importantly just about all of their symbols of power and affluence, their titles and the holdings and house elves associated with them. A House Elf could easily do the work of twenty or more servants if the family magic was strong enough, usually far quicker and better than human servants could too so they had been highly prized additions to magical families for over a thousand years. Their value was generally equated to that of a Baronetcys' land holdings, so House Elves quickly came to be regarded as both a symbol of status and major assets by the Magical Aristocracy and Gentry that arose in Medieval times, and the mechanisms used to associate the seats in the Magical Governments with a House or Family's highest title were used to link a House or Clan's House Elves to their highest title, to define the House or Clan's place in the aristocratic hierarchy, and how many votes they controlled (in Magical Britain at least, voting power was determined by the age of their House or Clan, how many titles they held, what level those titles were, what land holdings were associated with the titles and how big they were…. And how many House Elves were associated with each title).

Except for the few locations in Magical Britain which were sufficiently saturated with ambient magic to sustain them like Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic, a House Elf needed to be formally accepted into a family by the Head of the Family, because they held little magic of their own, so they needed the family magic to survive and perform their duties magically. House Elves who had lost their families or been cast out by the Head of the Family generally went to places like Hogwarts or the Ministry, because without being fed magic, most of them would sicken and die. Each of these locations had a Head Elf who had enough High Elf blood to act as a clan chief and accept other Elves into service there until they could find themselves another family to serve. They weren't bound to the magical site like they were to a magical family as the ambient magic only gave them enough to survive and perform simple tasks (generally, it wasn't enough to sustain some of them), so they were free to leave when they found a family to accept them. The fact that they weren't bound to the sites was used to further destabilise Dumbledore and the Ministry because the Potter High Elves took over half of the Hogwarts and Ministry Elves away by offering them places with the old families associated with them, and made…. Helpful... suggestions to the Head Elves about which parts of their sites the remaining elves might be best served looking after, and which areas could possibly be left out of the work schedule. After the Ministry of Magic was established at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, the House Elf Placement Bureau was created to control the placement of all unattached House Elves and more to the point, make sure that the Ministry got paid for them. The Witches and Wizards in the Placement Bureau weren't at all happy about the bollocking they got when they had to admit that they had no knowledge or record of what had happened to all the missing Hogwarts and Ministry Elves.

* * *

By the end of the day after the 'offers' were made to buy Voldemort's followers and supporters' properties and businesses, seventy four students had been taken out of Hogwarts by their harried parents. Over half of the students taken away had been in Slytherin (_including_ Draco Malfoy, much to Severus' great relief), but the point wasn't missed that thirty three of those Death Eaters' children had been in the other three houses, making a lie of the common argument that Slytherin was where _all_ Dark Witches and Wizards came from. Eight of the ten students whose names had changed because Harry permanently eradicated their family names for financing Voldemort's war were also in Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, but _they_ remained at Hogwarts because their families weren't running from the Dark Lord's wrath... and after Harry took nearly everything their families had it made much more sense to leave them at Hogwarts, where they wouldn't be costing the family any more until the end of the school year.

Unfortunately, being destitute and being forced to answer to new names like Ernie Smith and Zach Brown wasn't enough to shut them up, in fact they were whining at least twice as much and twice as loud about how they were going to make Harry pay for what he'd done to their families (because unlike the Death Eaters, their families knew exactly who was responsible for their downfall). Of course, Dumbledore's reaction to putting them and their accomplices into the infirmary, more dead than alive, in response to their murderous attacks on Harry from where they were hiding in the shadows was to try and exonerate Harry's attackers and expel and snap the wands of Hermione and everyone else who stood by Harry.… He probably would have tried to have them tried in front of the Wizengamot if they hadn't all been minors, and mostly in-line to Head Ancient or Most Ancient Noble Houses.

Harry was waiting for that though, and demanded that an emergency meeting of the Hogwarts Board of Governors be convened so that he may lodge a formal protest to the board in regard to this extremely biased and blatant attack on him and the other Heads or Heirs of Ancient or Most Ancient Noble Houses. Dumbledore tried to stop that of course, and went so far as to threaten to fire Minerva, Pomona, Filius and Severus when they ignored him, which only gave them more ammunition to use against him.

For all he wasn't happy that they didn't bow to his will though, Dumbledore was still confident that he would have the board behind him, after all he still had Alphias in the Potter seat and Earl Macmillan and his other supporters, and while he and Lucius Malfoy didn't see eye to eye… not publicly, anyway…. He was sure that Lucius and the Dark Houses would support him against Harry Potter and a group of school children, as would that Umbridge creature who had the Ministry's seat on the Board (this was supposed to be filled by a representative of the Department of Magical Education, to help keep Hogwarts in line with international education standards, but Millicent Bagnold had changed it to her Undersecretary to push her agenda onto Hogwarts and Fudge had kept it that way).

That was why Dumbledore got a nasty shock when Griselda Marchbanks arrived in his now meagrely furnished office, stating that as she was the Potter and Peverell Regent, she would be taking the Potter seat and Lord Greengrass would be taking the Peverell seat, Saul Croaker claimed the Black seat as the Black Steward, Augusta Longbottom, Andromeda Tonks, Celeste Greengrass and Amelia Bones were there with magically certified proxies to take the seats reserved for Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff respectively, along with Tiberius Ogden who was claiming another seat on the basis of House seniority and Hector Fawley, who was there to take the Ministry seat. When Dumbledore refused to accept that they had legitimate claims to their seats, they pointed out that they had magically certified documentation to prove that they _did__. _With those nine holding valid claims to seats on the Hogwarts Board, half the eight previous Governors who turned up lost their places on the Board and were sent away, most of them threatening retribution for being humiliated this way.

With nearly three quarters of the Board being in Potter and Black's camp, Dumbledore didn't need a seer to tell him he wasn't going to get what he wanted out of this meeting, he was just thanking the gods that it took a unanimous vote of the Board to dismiss the current Headmaster because he was confident that his supporters at least would block that.

When the Board heard that Dumbledore wanted to expel Hermione and the others, snap their wands and ban them from ever practising magic again because they had protected themselves from a cowardly attack out of the shadows, they shut that down quick smart… and then they ordered their _attackers_' wands to be snapped immediately, and for them to be expelled and banned from ever using magic in Magical Britain as soon as Poppy released them from the infirmary. Amelia cut off Dumbledore's spluttering that they couldn't do that by calling for an immediate vote to take the handling of all disciplinary matters away from the Headmaster and have it be decided by the Deputy Headmistress and House Mistresses and Masters, with any serious matters being decided by majority vote.

* * *

Dumbledore finally worked out that this had been planned when Severus had no hesitation in giving the same vow as the others to follow the guidelines specified and treat all students fairly and without bias for or against them. He decided that he wasn't going to let this betrayal stand and that if Severus wasn't working for him, he wouldn't be working for anyone…

"Madam Bones, something has just come to my attention that you need to take action about immediately! You see I have just discovered that Severus Snape is _not_ a reformed Death Eater as he convinced me he was, he has used his skills in legilimency and occlumency to deceive me because he bears the Dark mark and remains an agent of the Dark Lord!"

Amelia just looked at him for about thirty seconds, then turned and looked at Saul with a raised eyebrow. He snorted and shook his head, tossing her a coin bag. She smirked at him and then turned back to Dumbledore. "And how did you come to learn that Severus Snape was an unregistered legilimens and occlumens and deceiving you Professor Dumbledore? The fact that you were unaware of something so significant and he has been powerful enough to defeat your vaunted skills for the past twelve years is quite a concern!"

That struck at his pride, as she knew it would. "Don't be ridiculous! Of course I knew from the start that he was a strong legilimens and occlumens, but I couldn't probe him because unlike most witches and wizards, he would have detected it! That's why he was able to deceive me!…." He suddenly faltered as he realised what he'd just admitted…. "But that's not the point! The fact that he bears the Dark Mark is proof that he serves Voldemort!"

"Very well professor Dumbledore, we will put aside the fact that you have just admitted that you have known for at least twelve years that Severus Snape, a suspected Death Eater who you have been vouching for since the war, is an unregistered legilimens and occlumens but you have not reported this to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, _and_ that _you_ have been using your own skills in legilimency to illegally probe people, possibly even students at your school, without their knowledge or permission _for now_…. And deal with the question of when you discovered that Mister Snape bears Lord Voldemort's Dark Mark, and how you found out…."

She sat there, watching him as he was obviously trying to work out how to get out of this until she ran out of patience and snapped. "_Well?_"

"I…. I probed Lucius Malfoy's mind when he came to collect his son yesterday to discern why he and the other Death Eaters were taking their children out of Hogwarts and I saw an image of Severus with a Dark Mark on his arm…."

"While I do not regard Lucius Malfoy to be the fine upstanding citizen that Minister Fudge claims him to be, I must point out that you have just admitted to illegally probing yet another person's mind Professor Dumbledore….. But that begs another question, there was considerable speculation about Mister Snape being a Death Eater in the latter phases of the war and afterwards, are you telling us that you _never_ asked him to show you his arm to prove that he didn't bear the Dark Mark? Not even when you were hiring him to teach students at Hogwarts, and putting him in a position of considerable authority over some of them as the Slytherin House Master?"

"No, at the time I believed him to be a troubled young man who was seeking a chance to redeem himself so I gave him the benefit of the doubt."

"You may have had the right to take that approach for yourself, _personally_, Professor Dumbledore but you did _not_ have that right when you were hiring someone to teach the children of Magical Britain! If your viewpoint was wrong, as you are now saying it _w__as_, you would have put a whole generation of our children at risk! For that matter, if you discovered this yesterday, why has it taken over a day for you to decide to tell us… Just after you were visibly unhappy with the stance Mister Snape was taking on the matter of the Board taking decisions about punishment at Hogwarts out of your hands? While a serious matter, this appears to be no more than a petty attempt to get revenge on your part Headmaster!"

She turned to Severus before Dumbledore had a chance to respond. "Professor Snape, are you willing to bare your arms for us so that we may confirm whether or not you bear Voldemort's Dark mark?"

Severus didn't bother trying to hide his amused sneer as he drawled "Certainly Director Bones." and pulled up both sleeves to show skin that was free of any marks.

Dumbledore was shocked enough to blurt out. "He must be hiding the mark! It was there!"

Amelia just looked at Saul. "Director Croaker, are you able to discern whether Professor Snape is hiding the existence of a Dark Mark on his arm?"

Saul took out his wand, but stopped and asked. "Do I have your permission to perform intrusive scans on you Professor Snape?"

Severus nodded. "You do Director Croaker."

After fifteen minutes of diagnostic scans, most of which were done non-verbally, which greatly increased Dumbledore's ire because he didn't like not knowing what was being done or what the results were, Saul finished and shook his head. "Professor Snape shows no signs at all of having a Dark Mark…."

Dumbledore butted in. "You must have done the scans wrong, because I _know_ that he had a Dark Mark!"

Saul scowled at him and snapped. "If you attempt to question my competence again Dumbledore, you will be meeting me in an honour duel! Thanks to the uncooperative Wizengamot under _your _direction at the end of the war_,_ my department was given its first chance to do proper in depth examinations of the Dark Mark this week because we had several Death Eaters in our holding cells while they were waiting to be tried and sentenced to go through the Veil of Death, so I am currently quite familiar with the Dark Mark and I can assure you, Director Bones, that there is no trace of it on Professor Snape… I did however see some traces of dark magic around him, can you explain that Professor?"

Severus nodded again. "Yes Director. As you are well aware, I _did_ serve the Dark Lord as his Potions Master in the latter phases of the war and one of the services I was ordered to provide was to become Draco Malfoy's Godfather, so I have been required to spend time with Draco over the summer breaks, tutoring him on upcoming subjects and giving him remedial lessons in his weaker subjects. These lessons were given at Malfoy Manor, and there were numerous Dark Objects in many of the rooms I spent time in there, so I would expect that the dark magic you are seeing signs of has come from those Dark Objects."

Saul nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, that _would_ match what I was seeing on you Professor."

Amelia spoke up again. "Professor Snape, are you admitting to being a Death Eater?"

Severus fixed her with a less than impressed look. "No Director Bones, I am admitting to being the Dark Lord's Potions Master and his and Professor Dumbledore's spy in the war. Don't you think this masquerade has gone on for long enough Director? You, Director Croaker and half of the Lords and Ladies here were sitting on the panel in the tribunal where I testified under Veritaserum, provided memories and allowed qualified legilimens to enter my mind to confirm that the information I was giving you was true, and was tried and sentenced to perform community service to make some form of restitution for the crimes I was guilty of. I would not be at all surprised if you had brought copies of the magical contracts that are committing me to produce difficult potions for parts of the Ministry and Saint Mungo's for my community service."

Amelia nodded, looking a little shamefaced. "Yes, I apologise Professor Snape, I must admit that I was using you as bait in an attempt to fish for information from others present. The fact is, I've probably gotten as much as I am going to get from Professor Dumbledore at this point but he has done a good job of incriminating himself. He has admitted to having failed to report that you were an unregistered legilimens and occlumens for twelve years to the proper authorities, that he has been using his own legilimency to illegally probe people's minds without their knowledge or permission whenever he felt like it and specifically mentioned that he had done this to someone who was as far as he knew a Lord and Member of the Wizengamot only yesterday. And while not a crime, in and of itself, Professor Dumbledore has also admitted to hiring a man who many suspected of being a Death Eater to teach our children at Hogwarts without even bothering to take the simple precaution of checking for the existence of the Dark Mark on his arm..."

Minerva piped up at that point. "Duke Potter Peverell raised another relevant point when the Headmaster demanded to see him the night after Duke Black and the Death Eaters' trials Director Bones."

Amelia looked at her. "And what was that Professor McGonagall?"

"That at the time of his hiring, Professor Snape was four or five years younger than the _minimum_ age the Hogwarts Charter specifies for witches and wizards to become a professor at Hogwarts, and he immediately made him the House Master of Slytherin, which has even more stringent requirements. Severus meets the age requirement now and I for one believe that he was sincere in front of the tribunal and when he pledged to perform his duties better, but at the time he was hired, he failed to meet some key requirements."

"Thank you Professor McGonagall… And you Duke Potter Peverell... that _is_ a relevant point, and I believe that it ties in with another matter we were supposed to be addressing in this meeting, the fact that Professor Dumbledore apparently has a habit of ignoring the Hogwarts rules in regard to hiring and firing staff, as laid out in the Hogwarts Charter. I believe that Professor Dumbledore made threats to fire all four of Hogwarts' House Mistresses and Masters, purely because they wouldn't give in to his bully boy tactics when he tried to stop this Board Meeting being called, did he not?"

Minerva nodded. "Yes Director Bones."

* * *

That sparked an hour of heated discussion which ended up with Dumbledore _also_ losing all hiring and firing rights and money matters for Hogwarts to the Deputy Headmistress, with the House Mistresses and Masters' input, and being forced to take back all of the work he'd pushed onto the Deputy Headmistress because he claimed to be too busy to do it. The extra workload on the Deputy Headmistress resulted in the Madam Hooch, Hogwarts' flying instructor and Quidditch referee becoming the official Gryffindor House Mistress. Dumbledore looked very suspicious when Madam Hooch was quite enthusiastic about taking on the extra duties, saying that all she had to do at the moment was get those loaner brooms fixed up a bit but his questions were ignored as he was told that he should be concentrating on the fact that if he didn't show a marked improvement in the way he performed his duties as Headmaster, he would be _out_! He proved that his ego was still overriding his intellect, as he arrogantly reminded Amelia that the Headmaster couldn't be dismissed without a _unanimous_ vote of the Board, but Harry pulled the rug out from under him.

"However did you get the results you did at Hogwarts if you stop reading as soon as you've seen what you want to see Headmaster? Yes, the dismissal of the Headmaster requires the Board's vote to be unanimous, but the Hogwarts Charter _also_ stipulates that if sufficient evidence can be shown that any of the Governors are voting against an issue for purely political reasons and are refusing to acknowledge the facts presented in regard to the matter at hand, _they_ can be dismissed from the Board and the vote will be retaken once they have been replaced by the next qualified candidates who desire to join the Board of Governors… So if you're relying your supporters being able to block the vote to dismiss you, they better be able to come up with an argument for voting against your dismissal that will be accepted by the rest of the Board… And before you ask the obvious question, while _you_ have been careful to keep this information from me, I have recently been made aware that the House of Potter and its Associated Houses controls the Potter, Gryffindor and Slytherin seats on the Hogwarts Board of Governors, so I have been reading the Hogwarts Charter in order to properly understand my responsibilities, along with those of everyone else at Hogwarts!"

That shut Dumbledore up and they went on to other questionable performances. Severus conceded the fact that he had allowed himself to be pressured into being less fair and effective than he should have been and accepted the condition that if the average Potions grades didn't improve significantly by the end of the first term, he would be dismissed over the Christmas Break. Everyone but Dumbledore and his supporters agreed that having a ghost who didn't cover 99% of the material teaching History of Magic was setting the students up to fail, so Binns would be sent on and a real teacher hired as a top priority.

Harry added "And we need to find out whether the stupid ghost was being paid, because _that_ would be criminal!" as he looked straight at Dumbledore… Dumbledore blanched at that, he was really starting to hate Harry Potter!

They also agreed that the Divination course and teacher were useless and that the course would be cancelled, effective immediately. Any students who believed that they had a real affinity for the subject could continue it by self study, but it would not be allowed to dilute the other students' learning experience any longer. Those students currently taking three electives could just drop the class, but the others would be required to pick up another elective, with the recommendation being Muggle Studies because that course was being totally revised to bring it up to date and at least an introduction to the current Muggle world would be made a requirement for all students raised in a Magical household. Muggle-Born or Raised assistants would be hired to update the course material and help teach it and the Muggle studies teacher would be taken into the Muggle world to actually learn about what they were teaching, if she couldn't change enough to teach Muggle Studies properly she'd be replaced as well. They would also be bringing back another elective as soon as they had someone to teach it (they were hoping that the History teacher would take it on), Wizarding Culture. Like Muggle Studies for the Magical raised, the introductory sessions at least would be made mandatory for all Muggle-Raised students, because they needed to understand the Wizarding World as much as the Magically-Raised needed to get an understanding of the Muggle World.

Another one whose immediate dismissal was voted for was the Caretaker, half of those in the room had been forced to endure the bitter, twisted, spiteful old Squib who leered at the female students inappropriately, constantly whined about not being allowed to carry out his sadistic fantasies of inflicting capital punishment on the male students and abusing _all_ students, and he didn't really do anything because the Elves did the cleaning and Hagrid was the Keeper of Keys. Dumbledore didn't offer any valid reason for hiring the nasty Squib (Harry caught a flash of memory of Filch's equally nasty predecessor, Apollyon Pringle, being sent to join Voldemort's Death Eaters and keep Dumbledore appraised of what they were doing leading up to the start of Voldemort's war when he was using Dumbledore's aggravation to skim his thoughts without his knowledge.) or why he was arguing against the sour old bastard being fired, and he was quite put out when even his own cronies voted for Filch to be fired after they heard about his behaviour and the fact that, as a Squib, he was incapable of using magic or performing his duties properly.

Minerva caught Amelia, Harry and Hermione's eyes as she was saying that she knew a wizard who had just retired because he was tired of working in a shop who might be interested in taking the job, it took Amelia a little longer to catch on and it was a struggle not to smile like the kids did when it clicked, but luckily Saul was on the ball and asked Minerva to contact this wizard before quickly moving on to the next subject.

It turned into a busy night for Minerva, Severus and Saul, because they had to tell Argus Filch and Sybil Trelawney that they were fired, and get rid of Cuthbert Binns with the other ghosts' help (Dumbledore wasn't at all impressed when he was told that he'd be filling in for Binns until Minerva found a suitable replacement, and that the quality of his teaching would be taken into consideration when the Board decided whether to keep him on or not). They also had to snap the wands of the twelve students in the infirmary (Susan Bones had been heartbroken to see that her best friend, the ex Hannah Abbott, was the only girl taking an active part in the attack.) and tell them that they were expelled, banned from ever using magic in Britain and their parents would be coming to pick them up as soon as they were located.… Writing to the parents and telling them that their criminal children would be waiting for them outside Hogwarts' gates by 10:00 the next morning wasn't as difficult as she thought it would be after she watched those children's memories of the attack. Charity Burbage was at once the easiest and most frustrating one to deal with, because she didn't argue about her class being totally changed just after the start of the school year, and she was as excited as a little girl who had been told she was going to see Santa and his elves at the North Pole at the prospect of getting a crash course in _real_ Muggle culture to kick start the changes to her class.

After the Governors had left Harry, Hermione, Neville, Susan, Luna and Daphne went into Minerva, Pomona, Filius and Severus' offices and they were sealed so that everyone could sit down with Alfred in Wargholm and discuss whether it would be safe for Alfred to be inside the castle with Dumbledore. Sirius of course thought it would be a great prank, and Alastor pointed out that Dumbledore would never expect Alfred to be hiding right under his very nose. Alfred raised the fact that they hadn't found any suitable cottages on the market in Hogsmeade, that he'd been working on improving his occlumency and legilimency since he first went into hiding nearly a century ago and that his change in appearance was potions based so it couldn't be detected or cancelled with a 'finite', so he should be relatively safe. Saul, Severus and Harry tested his defences and found that they were strong, and Alfred readily agreed with Minerva's suggestion that Harry should use the secrecy charms to add another layer of protection in case Dumbledore caught him in an unguarded moment.

* * *

At that point they were interrupted by Hogwarts telling them, via the sorting hat which had come to Harry as a Gryffindor heirloom, that Dumbledore was trying to use his control of the wards to break through the protections they'd placed around Minerva's office. The Hat quickly passed on the wording she, Harry and Hermione needed to use to wrest control of the wards off him before they and Neville raced upstairs to get in place to play their parts inthe act to come.

Once the children were settled, Minerva cancelled the locking charms on the door and wrenched it open to demand to know what in the Seven Hells Dumbledore thought he was doing! He waved that off as he tried to push past her. "I have to make Harry see sense and do as he's told, and you have no right to keep me out, I am the Headmaster!"

Minerva wasn't budging. "And that gives ye the right to try and break into anywhere in Hogwarts ye wish to go, does it? Does that include the female teachers and students' bathrooms while they are bathing ye filthy old letch?…."

Before he had a chance to voice his outrage at what she said to him Minerva raised her voice. "Hogwarts, hear my plea! The Headmaster is abusing his control of the wards to force his way into my chambers and other places he has no right to go, please stop him doing this!"

Dumbledore didn't hear two other voices saying "As heir to the Founders, I deem Minerva Isobel McGonagall more far worthy than Albus Percival Dumbledore and wish her to control the wards of Hogwarts!" because he was reeling as Hogwarts ripped through his mind, searching for evidence of the intent behind these abuses. Hogwarts rampaging through his mind made it easy for Harry to enter without his knowledge and he was uncovering Dumbledore's dirty secrets as quick as he could.

A thunderous '_Gong!_' rang through the castle and Dumbledore fell to his knees as control of and ties to the wards were wrenched from him. Minerva probably would have done the same if she hadn't been holding onto the door to stop him pushing past her, because the impact of the wards attaching themselves to her was almost as much as them being forcibly ripped from Dumbledore.

She looked at the pathetic figure at her feet without one jot of sympathy. "It would appear that Hogwarts ha' agreed that ye're no' fit to control her wards _Headmaster_, so get out o' here and don' darken my doorway ag'n!" She couldn't deny feeling a certain degree of vindictive pleasure as she heard the door hit him in the face as she slammed it. The physical pain added to the shock of having the connections and information feeds forcibly ripped away let Harry into a few areas that Dumbledore had managed to keep hidden up to that point, so he kept trolling for more secrets up until they returned to the trunk space.

Minerva shakily reapplied the security charms and then they used the portkeys to return to the trunk. Filius was delighted to hear that the wards had changed to Minerva and he and Hermione were eager to learn what they entailed, by calmer heads prevailed and it was agreed that while gaining control of the wards was a good thing and very interesting, they had more urgent issues to address here. They remembered to warn Poppy that she'd probably be seeing Dumbledore soon just in time, because he was brought into the infirmary with the blood from his broken nose staining his garish robes a few minutes later. The indignity of being brusquely treated by the school's healer in plain sight of the students who would be thrown out of Hogwarts as soon as she released them the next morning just added insult to injury, bruising Dumbledore's ego further.

* * *

Once it was agreed that Alfred would start as the new Caretaker the next day, Harry raised something else he'd seen in Dumbledore's mind. He'd used the Elder Wand to feed the power he needed into the dark ritual he used to forcibly bind Fawkes to him after he 'defeated' his lover Gellert, and was drawing on the power of Hogwarts' wards to keep her chained to him. Harry had seen how to reverse the ritual and what Minerva needed to do to cut the link to Hogwarts' wards which was used to power the bindings on her, so they reached out to Fawkes through the Hat and Hogwarts and with her wholehearted agreement, severed the link to Hogwarts' wards so that she could leave Dumbledore's office without him. Harry could actually feel her vindictive glee as she made a point of perching on the cupboard where Dumbledore was keeping his most treasured possessions before she flamed away to the trunk space where they were. Oddly enough, the wards failed to notify the elves that there was a fire in the Headmaster's office, so all of his mementos of his time with Gellert were destroyed in the fire.

They performed the ritual to remove all traces of Dumbledore's bindings from her as soon as she arrived in the trunk space, freeing her from his influence. The others were a little surprised when Fawkes went to Luna, rather than Harry, when the bindings were removed, but Luna shook her head. "No, she has bonded with all four of us, but Harry already has a familiar bond with Hedwig, Hermione is bonded to Crookshanks and Daphne is bonded to Archimedes, so Fawkes has chosen me as her primary human, but she doesn't like that name so we'll have to find her an acceptable one."

They got a glimpse into Harry, Hermione, Luna and Daphne's thought processes (those four were already in the habit of tossing ideas back and forth between themselves until they came up with a solution for the problem at hand) when Susan wanted to know why Harry and Hermione didn't just use the fact that they were the Heirs of the Founders to get rid of Dumbledore now, because Hermione shook her head.

"We can't afford to get rid of him yet, we need to destroy his reputation first! Even after they saw what he'd done with their own eyes, half of those old fools in the Wizengamot refused to believe that the _Great_ Albus Dumbledore would do those things and kept saying that the memories were faked somehow, and from what I've seen, two thirds to three quarters of Magical Britain will probably be the same. So before we can cut the old bastard….."

She ignored Harry's half facetious "_Language_, Hermione!" and went on.

"off at the knees, we have to make them see him as the deceitful, manipulative, evil old bastard he is, and that will take time. If we can keep him tied down here, with Professor McGonagall controlling the wards and floos so he can't leave or let anything else into Hogwarts, we can limit how much he can do to mitigate our campaign to out him for what he really is."

* * *

At breakfast the next morning, the Great Hall was filling with disgruntled students who had been dragged out of bed on a Sunday and told that their attendance of breakfast in the Great Hall was _mandatory_, because there were some very important announcements being made.

They started paying attention when they looked at the High Table though, because Dumbledore looked like he was sulking and all the staff except for Trelawney and Filch were there, there was another old wizard up there too. The fact that it was McGonagall who went to the lectern while Dumbledore sat there sulking told them that something was really up, so it didn't take more than one 'Can I have your attention please?' to shut everyone up and she went on.

"Thank you… Now I'm sure that none of you will have missed the fact that quite a few students have left Hogwarts over the last couple of days and I have no doubt that you are curious as to why, but the only information I could get from my students' parents was that their family was leaving Britain. There will be another twelve students leaving Hogwarts today, and I _can_ tell you the reason for their departure, because that initiated the changes that you have been called here to be told about..."

She looked around and smiled to herself, yes, she had their attention now.

"Yesterday, twelve children of recently disgraced families made a cowardly attack on Duke Potter Peverell and his friends from where they were hiding in ambush. After Duke Potter Peverell and his friends defended themselves and put their attackers in the infirmary, someone saw fit to try and threaten them with expulsion, having their wands snapped and being banned from ever performing magic again in Britain. Duke Potter Peverell demanded that the matter be adjudicated by the Hogwarts Board of Governors… It is every student's right to call for this in instances of severe punishment, however I would warn you not to do so frivolously because if they find against you, the punishment may well be even worse than you would have received otherwise, but Duke Potter Peverell was confident that the truth would come out in a less biased judgement."

"Due to recent changes in the Wizengamot, nearly three quarters of the Hogwarts Board is now made up of new representatives and these new representatives were not prepared to allow the old biases and rule breaking to continue, so to cut a long story short, the twelve attackers got the punishment that Duke Potter Peverell's friends had been threatened with, and they will be leaving Hogwarts for the last time this morning. The new Board were not at all happy with the fact that the _victims_ of an attack had been threatened with this harsh a punishment, so myself, as the Deputy Headmistress, and the four House Masters and Mistresses now have the duty and sole authority to determine all punishments in Hogwarts. In the meeting last night it was decided that we, the staff of Hogwarts, have allowed bullying and unacceptable behaviour to go on for far too long so from now on any and all instances will be punished far more harshly than they were before as that is obviously the only language bullies understand. As I said, any of you or your parents have the right to appeal these punishments but if you do, the Board will be the ones deciding your fate so if in their view you complained about just punishment, you can expect the punishment they met out to be far harsher…."

"The Board also decided to address what they regard to be the key failings of Hogwarts in delivering the quality of education your parents are paying for then and there…. Please pay attention here, because I can assure you that this will effect each and every one of you…. For a start, the Divination Elective has been cancelled, effective immediately, and Professor Trelawney's employment at Hogwarts has been terminated. Being a Seer has never been something that can be taught and the Board has decided that it is no longer prepared to allow our students' time and attention to be wasted on that type of nonsense. Those of you who believe that you have a genuine gift as a Seer may continue the course through self study and take your OWL or NEWT examinations if you wish, but there will be no more Divination classes at Hogwarts. The Board have instructed me to tell you that if anyone wishes to complain about this, it must be done in writing to them and they will address the complaints. Those of you who were taking Divination and two other Electives may simply drop the Elective if you wish, or you may take up another Elective to replace it. Those who had Divination as one of two Electives however _must_ choose another Elective to take up. I would suggest that you see your House Master or House Mistress today about what changes you wish to make to your Electives. If you are not currently doing Muggle Studies, I strongly recommend that you consider this for your new Elective because the Muggle Studies course is being totally revised to represent the Muggle world as it is today, not as it was a hundred years ago."

"Once the revised course material has been formulated, it will be mandatory for every student who was raised in the Magical World to complete, as many times as it takes you to pass, an introductory Muggle Studies course. It has been agreed that the International Statute of Secrecy is being placed at too much risk of being breached by Magicals who expose themselves as being from another world by their outlandish dress and behaviour, so laws are being passed which state that anyone who has not passed the Introduction to Muggle Studies or Muggle Studies examinations will be charged with endangering the Statute of Secrecy if they are discovered in, or having visited the Muggle World... Anyone who does anything which risks exposing our world will also be charged, of course. Needless to say, any adults wishing to visit the Muggle World will also be required to complete and pass the same Introduction to Muggle Studies Course. Once again, the Board has instructed me to tell you that any complaints must be made in writing to them to be addressed."

"We are also reinstating another Elective as soon as we can engage someone qualified to teach it, Wizarding World Culture. This will cover the etiquette, customs and structure of the Wizarding World. We will also be putting together an Introduction to Wizarding Culture Course that will be mandatory for everyone raised in the Muggle World but Wizarding Culture is not just for them, as it has been noted that three quarters or more of Hogwarts' students do not have a proper understanding of these subjects."

"There are two…." Rolanda Hooch waved to get her attention and Minerva smiled. "Sorry, _four_ other items to be covered here today. The first is History of Magic, the Hogwarts Board was outraged that its students' understanding of the History of the Magical World has been sabotaged for decades through the course being taught by a ghost who presented nothing but the same somewhat biased opinion of a few so called Goblin Rebellions over and over again, so Professor Binns has been moved on and we will be getting a proper History of Magic teacher in as soon as we are able. Professor Dumbledore has graciously volunteered to teach History of Magic until we can engage a proper teacher…."

Dumbledore just nodded tersely, because he knew that anything he said would get back to the thrice damned Board. "Secondly, Mister Filch has decided to retire and is leaving today. Mister Filch is being replaced by Mister Stowe..."

She turned to wave at Alfred, who stood and bowed to the students.

"If anyone is of the opinion that they will be able to… what is the term? Oh yes, put one over on Mister Stowe, I will remind you that he is authorised to set detentions and give and take points like any of the teachers, and from what I've seen of him I seriously doubt that you will be able to get anything past him. Thirdly, I have been forced to open my eyes and accept that holding three positions means that some of them will necessarily suffer because no one has enough time to pay proper attention to all of them. Therefore, as of today, Madam Hooch is the new Gryffindor House Mistress. I must apologise to my Gryffindors for being too blind to see that I was failing you by stubbornly holding onto that role as well as being the Transfiguration Mistress and Deputy Headmistress. I am confident that Madam Hooch will be able to do a better job of looking after you without other duties taking up so much of her time…."

"And lastly, an anonymous benefactor has loaned the school enough second hand but quite serviceable Comet Two Sixty brooms to meet our needs until such a time as we can properly sort out Hogwarts' budgets and replace those dodgy old school brooms which should have been replaced decades ago… So as the older students will no doubt tell you, those of you who are new to Hogwarts this year are in for a treat because you will be able to learn to fly on decent brooms that can be trusted to behave as they should. Madam Hooch has also suggested that any older students who may have been turned off brooms in their flying lessons because those old brooms were so unpredictable and dangerous might like see her to sign up for more lessons with decent brooms, to see whether they enjoy the experience more. Madam Hooch has moved into the Gryffindor House Mistress' office and quarters as I have now moved into the Deputy Headmistress' Office and quarters."


	7. Topsy Turvy

**To those who find parts of this chapter a tad too 'Dark' and angry for Harry, I suggest that you go back and read the first chapter. Harry has had all of Dumbledore's fake 'rainbows and lollipops' programming removed and all his memories of Dumbledore and others' parts in his parents murders and his own systematic abuse and torture returned to him, so he has no reason to go along with what is expected of him. He also had a small part of his own soul sucked out by the dementor, it was a very small part, but as noted with Riddle and the creation of the Horcruxes, in this story at least the 'soul' is a largely defined as what makes up a person's compassion and humanity, so removing even a small part of it and then showing them what others have done to them and their loved ones is a recipe for opening a rather large can of whupass.**

**I've made an amendment to Harry's titles as I spotted a glaring error in my Arithmancy. The Druids wouldn't have _two_ powerful houses leading their councils as two isn't a key magical number, so that's been amended to three, as has the Ducal Mandate with Peverell becoming the third Duchy. Harry's betrotheds have also expanded to three, as he was betrothed to Luna and Daphne when they were babies. They got Daphne's parents in to fix what had been done to them and rearrange her betrothals, so Daphne is now betrothed to Duke Black's Heir, Luna to Duke Peverell and Hermione to Duke Potter (yes, this means that between the time when Sirius dies or abdicates to Harry and Harry's Heirs are old enough to take up their titles, the controls they originally put in place for the Ducal Mandate will be short circuited as Harry will hold all three Ducal Titles, it's a good thing he doesn't like to play God).**

**For the sake of argument, the original Druids' Council of Britain was made up of the leaders of the thirteen most powerful Druid Councils around Britain (when they earned enough respect among their peers to represent their local council or coven on one of the main Druid Councils, the Druids' or Druidess' families were formally titled Clans with them as the Chieftain or Chieftainess, and when they won the right to lead of one of the more powerful Councils their families were elevated to Druid Houses with them as Laird or Lairdess), but by the end of the Tenth Century the numbers of witches and wizards (as they were generally called by then) in Britain had expanded quite a bit and their most powerful families had become ennobled. Therefore the Druids' Council was reorganised into the Wizards' Council, which was made up of a panel of the three Arch Druids (Potter, Peverell and Black), another panel of thirteen Druid Lords who had been part of the Druids' Council of Britain, and a third Panel made up of twenty three heads of other significant British Wizard Councils. This structure was meant to allow the key magical numbers of three and thirteen to further empower the Council (not everyone believed in this, but it made those who did feel more comfortable and gave the thirty nine most significant Wizard Councils of Britain a voice in the council that led Magical Britain, so it was agreed by the Druids' Council).**

**While we're at it, magical numbers were used in defining the structure of the Wizengamot too, so there are fifty three Noble seats and one hundred and thirteen Minor seats in the Wizengamot, the so-called 'Pure-Blood Nobles' had used the combined military might of their Muggle relatives to pressure the Muggle Kings of Britain into forcing the change of government of Magical Britain through at the beginning of the Sixteenth Century in an attempt to take control of Magical Britain. It took them centuries to get this through and when they did, they were furious to find that they couldn't remove the element of the weighing system which gave the Most Ancient and Ancient Houses more votes than equivalent Wizengamot era Houses, stop the Lairds' titles of the Druid Houses being accepted as the equals of their minions' Minor Houses' Baronet titles of the same age _or_ stop the Chieftains of the Druid Clans retaining their traditional right to vote on issues effecting Magical Britain, because this meant that the Druids still had the power to stop them making any changes they wanted to.**

**And if anyone missed it, Alfred's true identity has been clarified as Baron Randolph Mordred Warg, Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Medrawt (the Old Welsh version of Mordred supposedly) and Chieftain of the Most Ancient Druid Clan Warg…. So his attempt to wipe out the Houses of Potter and Black wasn't the MOB's first attempt to destroy ancient and powerful houses who wouldn't go along with him… And Pegasus Lodge's name changed to Wargholm. I will admit to being a tad hypocritical in pointing out that Lupin was effectively named 'Wolfy McWolf', because Randolph supposedly means 'Wolf Shield' and Warg means 'Wolf', but 'Randolph Warg' isn't anywhere near as obvious as 'Remus Lupin'.**

**BTW: Who would ever give someone called Andromeda the pet name of 'Dromeda' FFS? The usual point of nicknames is to create a shorter, more affectionate version of someone's name, so Andromeda is 'Andi' in my stories. For that matter, Sirius is 'Siri', Nymphadora is 'Dora', Narcissa is 'Cissa' when she isn't being an evil opportunistic bitch, Minerva is 'Minnie', Pomona Sprout is 'Mona', Amelia Bones is 'Ami', Bathilda Bagshot is 'Hilda' ('Aunt Hilda' to most) and Augusta Longbottom is 'Gussie' to those who knew her when she was young. I will also remind those who may have forgotten that Bathilda Bagshot and Griselda Marchbanks were both grown women when Dumbledore was at Hogwarts, so _everyone_ is young to them.**

**While on the subject of names, did anyone else ever wonder where the idea to name Hermione after a Shakespearean character came from? ;^)**

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

The ones who had jobs to get done that morning used the pandemonium caused by Minerva's announcements to slip away unnoticed. Minerva took Harry and Hermione with her to Godric's Hollow to talk to Bathilda Bagshot about taking the position of Professor of History of Magic. Harry's main job there would be to scan Madam Bagshot for compulsions and memory blocks, and if he found any remove enough to get her to agree to go to Gringotts to get herself cleared of everything. If he didn't find anything Minerva would just tell her that she'd taken the time to say hello while they were in Godric's Hollow for Harry to see his parent's graves and their cottage, because that would mean that she had willingly chosen to follow Dumbledore and believe everything he said like Lupin.

Harry found plenty of evidence of interference when he scanned her though and it didn't take much to get her to recognise some of that interference and agree to be taken somewhere to have everything else cleared from her, in fact she was pretty much begging them to do so. Madam Bagshot was surprised, to say the least, when Minerva's strange portkey deposited them in a Goblin Healers' Hall, but seeing Augusta Longbottom _talking_ to her son and daughter-in-law made her accept that this was apparently a place where miracles happened. She allowed herself to be talked into getting herself seen to before she interrogated young Gussie about how this had come about, and found that while the goblin and human healers they had there were at least as good as any she'd seen anywhere else, the use of flushing potions to get everything out of your system unfortunately seemed to be a universally disgusting experience.

Talking to Augusta afterwards, she found that information from someone who had had to repeatedly get the victims of Voldemort's excessive use of the Cruciatus curse back into good enough shape to perform their duties (Voldemort had found that he was losing too many of his servants when he punished them for failing him so he developed a way to bring them back to a functional state if he went too far) had helped them draw Frank and Alice out of the depths of their minds once all the potions they were being given to keep them in a vegetative state had been flushed from their systems and now they were being nursed back to health. They were spending most of their time in a runic time chamber and were taking a rare potion from overseas that not even the healers knew the details of (it was the Health Potion made with Alfred's Health Stone but it was certainly rare and the stone came from France, which qualified as overseas) to bring them back as quick as was safe, but they'd been intentionally kept as vegetables for twelve years in the hope that they'd just give up and die and recovering from that would take a little more time.

That last statement begged a question, but Gussie turned grim when she asked who would do that to the Lord and Lady of a Noble and Most Ancient House? "Who has been interfering with _you_ for nearly a century Aunt Hilda?"

She nodded when Bathilda spat "Dumbledore!"

"Yes, it is becoming more and more apparent that Grindelwald and Voldemort _weren't_ the worst Dark Lords of this century, that title obviously goes to Albus Bloody Dumbledore! But what makes dealing with him hard is the fact that no matter how many of his vile crimes are exposed, the Sheep _still_ follow him and believe that he has rainbows shooting out of his arse, as Baroness Tonks' daughter is fond of exclaiming… quite often and loudly."

"_Baroness_ Tonks? When did Andromeda Tonks become a Baroness?"

Augusta gave an unladylike snort. "Don't you read the Daily Prophet Aunt Hilda?"

"That rag? Not likely! I wouldn't use it to wipe…. Rainbows…." She blushed as she remembered just in time that she was _supposed_ to be behaving like a respectable matron.

Augusta snorted again. "Generally I'd agree with that statement, but I think the truth has been so juicy this week that any embellishment would just detract from the reports…." She paused as she looked around and called out to one of the human healers to ask if they had this week's Daily Prophets around somewhere. The healer said that they should still be in the tea room and gave directions on how to find it, so she thanked him and led Bathilda in that direction.

Twenty minutes later, Bathilda was staring at her, stunned. "Harry Potter, that little charmer who came to see me with Minerva this morning, is Duke Potter and Peverell and Heir to Sirius Black, who is Duke Black?"

Augusta nodded. "Yes, and Dumbledore put both of them through hell for the last twelve years. Frank and Alice have been suffering while they were kept trapped inside their own heads and my poor grandson hasn't had an easy life with me being compelled to ignore him _and_ ignore what my damned brother was doing to him, supposedly to try and force him to present his magic, but from what I've seen and heard that was nothing on what young Harry and Sirius had to suffer through. And do you know what released Harry?"

Bathilda slowly shook her head, not sure that she wanted to hear this.

"Being kissed by a thrice damned Dementor! He was lucky, if you can call it that, in that he had a fragment of Voldemort's black soul trapped inside him and that wasn't anchored as well as his own soul was so the monster sucked that out first and it had only started on his soul when a teacher on the Hogwarts Express finally moved himself to drive it off with a Patronus, but that somehow broke the memory blocks and compulsions that Dumbledore had put on him, so everything had come back to him by the time he woke from being in a magical coma for three days…."

She snorted again as she remembered where he had been in his head. "While he was stuck inside his head, the poor boy was living in the world of a romance novel that one of his betrothed… Hermione, the one who was with him today… had convinced him to read over summer while he was stuck with those thrice damned Muggles Dumbledore dumped him on. From what he said, while it was only three days out here, it was several _months_ in that world for him and he _still_ dotes on her! I'd say that is proof of true love if I've ever seen it!"

Hearing that he'd been kissed by a dementor was horrifying, but Bathilda had to laugh and agree with Gussie, that certainly sounded like true love!

Just then Minerva ran in in a panic, asking if Harry had come back here, so Augusta asked what had happened. Her first response was to shake her head angrily, but she obviously changed her mind because she exploded.

"Dumbledore and those thrice damned bastards at the Ministry! After we brought Bathilda here, we went back to Godric's Hollow, because Harry has never been given a chance to see his parents' graves or their cottage there, and until I had Dumbledore's manipulations cleaned out of me I never thought to go back….. It was all Hermione and I could do to stop him destroying the entire village!…. The Ministry has taken their cottage, _Godric Gryffindor's fecking __ancestral __home_, to use it as a monument to the war and someone has blasted great holes in the roof and walls upstairs... Dumbledore no doubt to support his bullshite story about the epic battle that he claims took place there, then they just left it to fall apart for the last twelve years after everything that wasn't nailed down inside was stolen because nothing was done to stop anyone going inside and taking what they wanted….."

She took a minute or so to try and get herself under control and then started speaking again in a cold, hard voice.

"But that wasn't the worst of it, _that_ was what was waiting for us at the graveyard! Dumbledore has made a mockery of James and Lily's sacrifice and made it look like everything they did was in support of his agenda so that the sheep will follow in their footsteps, but this is what almost got Godric's Hollow wiped off the map…. _He included that rat bastard on their headstone and made it sound like his sacrifice __as their closest friend__ was as great at theirs!_"

Augusta's outraged shriek at that brought people, both goblin and human, running from every direction.

* * *

Meanwhile, a teenage couple were stalking through the corridors of the Ministry building, and the anger and power roiling off them was pushing everyone out of their way. The DMLE were called to deal with this attack on the Ministry, but the Senior Aurors recognised the young Duke Potter and just had their Aurors get everyone out of their way before the young Duke's magic did it. Those who were more attuned to magic shuddered as they realised how much power there must be in the young Duke, to be radiating this much, and the fact that his girlfriend could stay at his side like that was impressive as well, as none of them could get any closer than ten ells from him.

They couldn't work out where he was going until the doors of the records office were ripped half off their hinges when they were smashed by the waves of energy coming off him and he strode in as if he hadn't noticed.

"I want to see all the records relating to the Ministry's illegal confiscation of Gryffindor Cottage in Godric's Hollow and the funeral arrangements for James and Lily Potter!"

"Who do you think you are, coming in here demanding that I give you anything you want Boy? Aurors! What are you doing just standing there? Arrest this boy for destruction of Ministry Property!"

The Aurors were interested to see that the energy coming off Harry could apparently be focussed, because when he slammed his fist down on the counter, the impact split the counter in two.

"I am Duke Henry James Potter Peverell, Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell and Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and their Associated Houses and Clans. That is _my_ cottage and they are _my_ parents and I want to see those records _**now**_!"

Even though the idiot had wet himself when he saw the counter being split in two like that, he still tried to bluster.

"I… I… I don't care who you claim to be, those are confidential Ministry records and I can't show them to you. You will have to submit a formal request to the Ministry and the relevant department will get back to you when they find the time to look into it…."

What felt like some invisible giant's hand grabbed him by the throat and smashed him back into the wall behind him with his feet four or five feet off the floor. He wanted to scream in pain because it felt like at least half the bones in his body were broken but he couldn't make a sound, yet he could somehow hear every word the boy spoke quite clearly even though he was talking quietly.

"And which department would that be? The _Rob the Orphaned Boy Who Lived Blind because he can't do anything about it while he's being worked like a House Elf and abused by his Muggle so called relatives Department_? Is _that_ the one you're talking about?"

Between the pain and the fact that he couldn't breathe because his throat was being squeezed shut, everything was going black but he thought he could hear two female voices pleading with the boy to let him go. One of them must have gotten through to him because he was suddenly released, but passed out from the pain after he hit the floor and his weight came onto his smashed hips and bones.

Amelia had heard most of their exchange as she was running down the corridor to the location of the conflict. She would have been there sooner if she hadn't been in Fudge's office when word came though about the intruder, because that pathetic excuse for a wizard had held her up by getting on his knees and begging her to protect him from whatever Dark Lord was rampaging through the Ministry… She was just glad that she'd been able to help Hermione stop Harry killing _this_ idiot.

Looking around the room, she caught sight of another wizard cowering behind table in the back. "You there! Do you know who I am?"

"Y…. Yes Director Bones."

"Good! Now get those records Duke Potter asked for, if they're filed in date order they should be somewhere around November Eighty One…."

The idiot was just staring at her.

"What are you waiting for? Go and get those records now!"

"I don't know where they could be Director, Mister Shafiq wouldn't let anyone but him handle the sensitive files…."

"Oh for Fuc…. _**Ennervate**_!"

She _really_ wanted to rant and rave about the stupidity of the Pure-Bloods the Ministry hired, but she realised that if she didn't find a way to get Harry out of here quick smart, people were going to start dying.

A silencing charm quickly followed the spell to revive him because his immediate response was to scream loudly. She lifted the silencing charm and jumped in with the question she needed to ask him as soon as he stopped to draw breath.

"Where are the files for Gryffindor Cottage and the Potter Funerals?"

"I can…."

"Do you want to _**die**_? If you don't tell us where those files are _right now_, I can pretty much guarantee that Duke Potter here is going to start pulling bits off of you and he won't stop until he either has the files he wants or you are dead…. _Where. Are. The. Files_?"

The thought of even more pain, leading to his death, suddenly clarified matters in his brain and he started talking quickly.

"The Minister's offices, Madam Umbridge had a hidden room built in the back of the dementor enclosure that can only be reached by getting past the dementor. She had most of the sensitive Ministry records moved there after she became Senior Undersecretary to the Minister."

Many of those watching this with bated breath thought the way Potter said "Thank you" politely and then calmly turned and left was more frightening than the towering rage he'd been showing just seconds before.

Amelia jerked her head at the fool who was passed out again on the floor and barked "Get him to Saint Mungo's and ask them to do what they can to keep him alive. I want to know what other secrets he's hiding." before running off to try and catch Harry and Hermione before they got to the elevators.

When they reached the Minister's offices, Harry headed straight for the dementor enclosure. The ones who were trying to stop him committing suicide suddenly backed off when the Sword of Gryffindor appeared in his hand, blazing with incandescent light and intense heat coming off its blade. The dementor came at him as he stepped into the enclosure, because there was nothing in their race memory to say that they should be afraid of a sword in one of these puny creatures' hands, but Harry sidestepped, then quickly turned and ran it through, pegging it to the wall of its enclosure with the sword as it burnt from the inside out. The horrible screaming and stench as it burnt reminded Amelia of what happened when they burnt out the dementors' dungeons in Azkaban, but at least it didn't take long to burn up. When the dementor had been reduced to a pile of ash, Harry sent the Sword of Gryffindor back to where it came from.

By Hermione's count, it took Harry less than thirty seconds to locate the disillusioned door under a strong notice-me-not charm and work out the key to open it. Harry just shrugged when she shook her head at him. "What? I have all of Riddle's and quite a bit of Uncle Alfred and Auntie Patty's knowledge in my head and Mum's brain, you didn't think it would take me more than ten or fifteen seconds to outsmart whatever measures that stupid cow came up with, did you?"

Hermione kissed him on the cheek. "No, but please don't call her that Harry, it's very insulting to cows."

He grinned at her and kissed her on the top of the head then called for Dobby. Amelia was interested to note that Dobby looked several inches taller and his features were more refined than they'd been four or five days ago, it was as if he had turned into something closer to a High Elf in a matter of days. Harry caught that look and told her he'd explain when they had the time, then asked Dobby to bring one or two of Uncle Alfred's trunks here. Dobby was back in a flash and started moving the bookshelves full of files into the trunk, he'd seen what Harry was looking for in his head and extracted those files as he was moving the bookshelves into the trunk, handing them off to Harry.

Harry thanked Dobby, then walked to an unoccupied desk and sat down to read through them. After a short while he looked up, as he'd found the name of the one from the Minister's office who had been behind this. "Does Albert Finney still work here?"

Half of the office turned and pointed to where an unkempt looking wizard was dozing at a desk that was piled high with files without hesitation. No-one in the office liked the pig, he was a letch and an idiot whose only claim to fame was the fact that he'd been instrumental in the creation of the Potter monument at the end of the war so they were looking forward to seeing the pain and mayhem promised in this young wizard's expression when he looked at Finney. That was why they were disappointed when Director Bones stopped him with a touch on his arm when he went to approach the fool, and after a few quiet words, he turned back to gather up the files he'd laid out on the desk while _she_ approached Finney.

"Albert Finney?"

"What?… What?…. Don't bother me, can't you see I'm very busy?"

"You are under arrest for the theft and destruction of a priceless heirloom of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor, namely Gryffindor Cottage, the ancestral home of Earl Godric Gryffindor, and everything inside it which belonged to the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter and Peverell. You are also charged with the wilful desecration of the memory of the heroes who ended the war against Voldemort, James and Lily Potter, the Duke and Duchess Potter."

That shocked Finney awake enough to realise that the witch talking to him was the Director of the DMLE. "What? You can't do that! I was doing what the Minister told me!"

"If that's the case, we will be charging her as well, but that won't stop you being convicted of _your_ crimes Finney…. Aurors, take him away for questioning, and do we have any information on the state of the Chief Archivist yet?"

Kingsley Shacklebolt quickly hid his smirk. "He will live Director Bones, but the Healers at Saint Mungo's have told us that it will be at least a week before they can get him strong enough to take any…. Strenuous questioning…. So it's a good thing you got to Finney here before Duke Potter did."

The smell coming from Finney made it obvious that he'd soiled himself when he worked out what Kingsley was saying. Amelia looked him in disgust and said. "Clean him up and take him away for questioning Senior Auror Shacklebolt, and collect everything from his desk and any other files he may have, I want to know what other criminal activities he was involved in."

Amelia left Kingsley to handle that, because she had something else to follow up…. Seeing Harry kill the dementor with the Sword of Gryffindor like that had reminded her of something else she'd heard of him killing with that sword. She pulled Harry and Hermione into the dementor enclosure, where Dobby had been waiting for Harry since he finished packing everything from the hidden room into the trunk. He held the shrunken trunk out to Harry but Harry waved to Amelia so Dobby handed it to her with a bow. Harry shrugged when she looked a question at him. "I think the DMLE will be able to do far more than me with all the dirty laundry that the Toad was hiding in that room Auntie Ami. So, what did you want to talk to us about?"

She looked at him for about thirty seconds and then shook her head with a grim smile. "Yes, I dare say we can Harry, thank you. Now I heard that you went into the Chamber of Secrets alone and fought and killed Slytherin's basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor a few months ago, is that right?"

"Well I wasn't entirely alone, Ginny Weasley was there and Niamh helped me..." At Amelia's look of confusion he explained. "Dumbledore called her Fawkes... and male... but she says that that was never her true name and she doesn't want any reminder of being forcefully bound to serve him for nearly fifty years, so she has chosen Niamh as her new name… Anyway, I wouldn't have survived, let alone defeated the basilisk, if Niamh hadn't brought me Myddrin… The Sorting Hat…. with the Sword of Gryffindor inside it and destroyed the basilisk's eyes to protect me from its gaze."

Amelia shook her head again. "That's not exactly what I meant Harry… did any human, goblin or anyone else who would be _officially_ defined as a person help you kill the basilisk?"

Harry shook his head.

"Good, that means that you have the right to formally claim its carcass by right of conquest through sole combat, and if you do that, only you can legally sell any part of its remains. It's been illegal to breed basilisks anywhere in the Wizarding World for seven or eight hundred years and there haven't been any official sightings of a living basilisk for at least four hundred years so even a small basilisk carcass would be worth a lot of money... Though you can still buy basilisk skin and potions ingredients if you're prepared to pay the price so I'm pretty sure they're still being bred somewhere…. But the point is that sooner or later Dumbledore is going to remember that you killed Slytherin's basilisk down there and try and claim it for himself, no doubt using the excuse that it rightfully belongs to Hogwarts. However he can't do that if you have already formally claimed it and had your claim formally accepted by a senior Ministry official..."

She pointed to herself to ensure that there were no misunderstandings about what she was saying. Harry nodded and she coached him through the process to make his claim for the basilisk he killed in sole combat, and once she formally accepted his claim there was a flash like a magical oath being accepted. Amelia suggested that the goblins would be the best ones to get to render the carcass down because they had the most experience in rendering exotic beasts, and given his relationship with the Goblin Nations, they would almost certainly be more honest and fair with him than anyone else.

* * *

With that, Harry and Hermione used the portkey to take them to Gringott's office and Harry left the memory with Gringott of what happened in the Chamber of Secrets, so that he could start making arrangements to harvest the basilisk. Then they got copies of all the relevant records and contracts and headed to Crawley with a team of Gringotts' warders to secure the Grangers' home and ensure that they had mechanisms on hand get them to somewhere safe if anything happened. That was the primary reason for going to the Grangers', but they'd also agreed that with Hermione's titles and the betrothal contracts registered, they needed to make sure Hermione's parents understood what was going on and formally swore oaths of fealty to put them under the protection of the House of Potter before someone tried to use that information to manipulate them into signing some form of binding agreement that could be used against her.

Harry could tell that Hermione was up to something when they arrived in the park down the street from their house (the goblins had been there to set up temporary wards around the house the day that Hermione had been accepted as Head of the Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff and Noble and Ancient House of Dagworth-Granger, but they couldn't establish the proper wards without the formal permission of Hermione's parents), but it didn't take long to find out what that was, because it came out as soon as they arrived at the house and she made the formal introductions.

"Mum, Dad, I'd like you to meet my very best friend, Duke Henry James Potter Peverell, but as he's just about family, you can call him Harry. Harry, it is my great pleasure to introduce my mother, Jean Rebecca Granger, Doctor of Dental Surgery, and my father, Robin Goodfellow Granger, Doctor of Dental Surgery…."

Harry froze in the act of shaking her father's hand and turned to look at her. "What the Hell Hermione? In all the times the subject of how you came to get your name came up over the last two years, you never _once_ mentioned the fact that your father was named after _Puck!_"

Hermione shrugged. "Hey, it's not my fault that Granddad Granger was a failed Thespian with a warped sense of humour! _Or_ that Daddy decided that Granddad had somehow started a family tradition, so he _had_ to name me after a Shakespearean character too….." She turned to glare at her father. "Though I have never understood why, with the multitude of well known female characters in Shakespeare's works who had such lovely names... he couldn't have chosen one that wasn't so unusual and obscure that I would be constantly teased about it and most people could pronounce or shorten without butchering it!…. For example, just off the top of my head! Desdemona is a lovely name, many people would recognise it as being from Othello and Desie or Mona would be quite acceptable short forms for it!…. And to tell you the truth it never really occurred to me that anyone else at Hogwarts might have known that Robin Goodfellow was better known as Puck Harry."

It was Harry's turn to shrug. "Someone thought it would be a good idea to read all of Shakespeare's works and many other period stories so that he'd be able to fit into that world better and I remembered the names…. But what about Justin, wouldn't he would have had the education to be familiar with Shakespearean characters?"

"Are you kidding, _Baronet_ _Justin Finch Fletchley_, the Muggle Malfoy? He was supposed to go to _Eton_ you know, old boy! Oh no, people who are destined to take over such _weighty_ responsibilities as him would never bother wasting their time reading any of that namby pamby _arts_ nonsense!…. And what makes you think I'd ever tell that prat _anything_ about my family Harry? That little wanker was the reason the whole bloody school turned on you when you were forced to reveal that you were a Parselmouth to save him from that bloody snake last year… Which he never thanked you for!"

Harry had to smile at the "_Language Hermione!_" reprimand she got from her Mum for that, because the tone and voice mirrored what he'd heard from Hermione thousands of times over the last two years.

With that, they sat down and spent the next few hours going through the family trees that had resulted in their little girl being accepted as the Baroness of two Noble Houses that went back a thousand years, and a third that went back over six hundred and fifty years in the Noble line of Dagworth-Granger. Over two hours of that time was spent explaining the legal necessity to protect Hermione which had resulted in her betrothal contracts with Harry, and that they could be cancelled if and when she had a better option to protect her.

Hermione's father jumped up and demanded that the betrothals be cancelled immediately of course, but he sat down, shut up and listened quick smart when his daughter's surprisingly commanding (and intimidating) thirteen year old betrothed conjured a shining sword out of thin air, pointed it at him and told him to do precisely that. Robin was shocked by how quickly he stopped thinking of Harry as the pathetic, uneducated, penniless little street urchin that he'd met a year ago and acknowledged the young Duke as a man to be listened to, even more so when he realised that it wasn't just that ruddy great sword in his face that brought about the change in how he saw him, it was more his expression and the way he took command. Mind you, having to look along three and a half feet of sword blade at the face of the one who's commanding your attention does tend to add to the impact of what they're saying.… He'd have to ask Hermione one day what the significance of this Sword of Gryffindor was though, he'd caught the fact that it was supposedly a magical sword from one of Harry's ancestors, and knew that they were both in Gryffindor house at Hogwarts, but from what she was saying it held more meaning than that.

In the end, Jean and Hermione managed to use the facts and very real dangers existing in Magical society to beat enough sense into Robin to make him stop arguing about the betrothals, sign the contracts with Hermione and Jean to have their house, dental practice and cars properly warded and swear the oath of fealty to place them under the protection of the House of Potter. They also accepted and promised to always wear the communicator watches which had a single runic portkey that would instantaneously transfer them into the protected trunk set up for them in Gringotts. They could be moved elsewhere via the mirror portals once they were in the trunk, but the point was that they would be out of harm's way so that the People's warriors or the DMLE's Aurors and Hit Wizards could engage whoever it was attacking their house, practice or wherever they were without worrying about them.

* * *

While all this was going on, Severus left Hogwarts with Charity Burbage and a Sixth Year Hufflepuff student, Beatrice Haywood. They were meeting Beatrice's older sister and parents, along with Ted Tonks and Patricia Rakepick at the Haywoods' home, to take the Muggle Studies teacher on her first trip into the Muggle World.

Severus, Minerva and seven of the nine Governors they'd used to push their changes through the Hogwarts Board had visited the Haywoods after the Board Meeting the night before with a proposal…. That Beatrice's older sister Penny would be taken on as Severus' Apprentice and Assistant Potions Professor, helping with and ultimately taking over teaching the first two years at least of Potions classes, and she would also become one of the primary Assistant Muggle Studies Professors. While she'd been one of the best Potions students at Hogwarts through the Eighties, as a Muggle-Born Penny's chances of getting a Potions Mastery Apprenticeship were slim to none, but their need to have people who were qualified to teach the updated Muggle Studies subject at Hogwarts gave them the opening they needed to give her the chance to pursue something she'd just about given up on (the Professors' minimum age requirements didn't apply to Assistant Professors, as the Assistant Professor roles were actually created to allow the Professors to have their Mastery Apprentices with them at Hogwarts). Penny's mother Margaret Haywood would also be taking on a role as an Assistant Muggle Studies Professor and Beatrice, Ted Tonks, his wife Andi and daughter Dora and Patty Rakepick would assist with chaperoning the class trips to the Muggle World. Patty would also be helping out with the classes from time to time while she was at Hogwarts trying to sort out the mess that Dumbledore and the other Headmasters' interference with the wards had caused.

While they were securing the assistants Charity would need to be able to effectively teach contemporary Muggle-Studies, Minerva managed to rope Augusta into agreeing to teach the Wizarding Culture course by tying that into the inducements for Penny, Margaret and Beatrice to help with Muggle-Studies. Augusta made sure that Minerva knew that she would be paying for this, but had to concede that her arguments about why Lady Longbottom was the best choice for this were valid, so Augusta was now searching for reference material that would be suitable for the Wizarding Culture course and thinking about what to include in an Introduction to Wizarding Culture to help those raised in the Muggle world avoid the biggest pitfalls when they entered the Wizarding World.

When she returned home from Gringotts (with a trip into Diagon Alley to get teaching robes and other things she'd be needing when she started the next day), Bathilda was carrying a copy of History of Magic and some of those marvellous ball point pens with her as she went about the house packing her things to move into Hogwarts. They had grudgingly agreed that they'd have to continue using the existing History of Magic as the core History of Magic text book for now, but that didn't mean that she couldn't write and make use of revisions and addendums to correct the lies that Albus Bloody Dumbledore had compelled her to write to make him look better and she was scribbling them in the book as she thought of them.

Severus, Charity, Ted Tonks, Patty Rakepick and the Haywoods were going through non-magical reference and text books and the ICW approved Mundane World text books, trying to agree on what would give the students the most balanced view and they could get enough copies of to start using straight away. Severus, Ted and Patty were laughing about Hermione's expected outrage when she witnessed the mechanism they'd agreed on to drive the point home with everyone that the new Muggle Studies Course was nothing like the old one, because they were going to have everyone hand over their old Muggle-Studies text books and they were going to burn them, right there in front of them, then hand out the new text books. Ted and Patty had already seen enough of Hermione to know of her reverence for the written word so they wouldn't be at all surprised if she started trying to hex them for burning books.

* * *

As soon as Ted Tonks returned from Charity's introduction to the Muggle World and the session to agree what the new Muggle-Studies text books would be, he was handed the files relating to the Ministry's illegal seizure of Gryffindor Cottage (a priceless piece of the history of Magical Britain), it being wilfully half destroyed by person or persons unknown (though the list of suspects for that was damned short, considering that it was Dumbledore who created and spread the stories of the cottage being half destroyed), failing to take any measures at all to prevent the deterioration of the cottage and whatever other priceless Heirlooms and objects of the Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses and Clans being stolen from the cottage and the wilful desecration of the memories of the two heroes who had saved Magical Britain by stopping Voldemort's reign of terror. Ted was rubbing his hands together in glee at being given a case that had a good chance of bringing the Ministry down.

His instructions from Harry were to have the Ministry pay the House of Potter Two Hundred and Fifty Million Galleons to keep their war memorial…. The fate of James and Lily's graves wasn't up for debate. Harry's parents' bodies would be moved to Potter Manor and interred in the family graveyard there with a _suitable_ headstone and that disgusting piece of Dumbledore propaganda making James and Lily out to be mindless sheep who willingly gave up their lives for the advancement of his _Greater Good_, and even worse, making the Rat out to be their closest friend who had made just as much of a heroic sacrifice as they did, was going to be utterly eradicated, if Harry had his way the atoms it was made up of would never come in contact with each other again.

When the Ministry said that there was no way that they could ever raise Two Hundred and Fifty Million Galleons, and to be fair, they couldn't….. Ted's instructions were to get what Harry really wanted, having Gryffindor Cottage formally returned to the House of Potter with a very public admission of the fact that it had been stolen from the House of Potter, half destroyed and left to rot, everyone involved very publicly crucified so that the entire wizarding world knew what they'd done… And Fifty Million Galleons to pay for returning Gryffindor Cottage to the state it was in when James and Lily were alive, give some form of restitution for all the priceless heirlooms, objects and memories that had been stolen from the Houses of Potter and Peverell and their Associated Houses and Clans as a result of nothing being done to prevent anyone and everyone stealing whatever they wanted from Gryffindor Cottage (The beauty of this was that while Harry had already reclaimed many of them from Dumbledore, he would never admit what he had stolen from the Potters, so their value could be included in the demand for reparation.) and the desecration of the memories of James and Lily Potter's sacrifice by making them into Dumbledore's poster children and promoting the _living_ _traitor_ Pettigrew as being their equal in sacrifice and closest friend.

Ted understood that Harry wasn't prepared to give an inch on his real demands, and he was quite on-board with that. Most of the so-called _Light_ Houses who remained as the force behind the Ministry had profited greatly from following Dumbledore's agenda and destroying everyone in the way of their plans, but they had been careful enough to prevent legal mechanisms being used to make to pay for what they'd done. Having to cough up Fifty Million Galleons to repay the debt the Ministry owed however would be enough to take away most of their ability to pay the bribes they traditionally used to make things go their way, and skim enough of the cream off their fortunes to seriously tarnish the opulent, untouchable images they relied on to protect them from the rabble of the Wizarding World….. And if they refused to pay, well that would give Harry and Sirius justification to use the Ducal Mandate to _make_ them pay.

Ted had to wince at the way Harry was setting Magical Britain and to some extents the Wizarding World to rights though, he'd been the husband of a daughter of the House of Black long enough to come to accept that ripping the bandaid off quickly was the best way to handle many issues, but Harry's way was to rip the bandaid off, and then use acid to scour the corruption from the wound. He'd thought that Andi and her Great Uncle Arcturus' methods had been a bit ruthless when they dealt with issues sometimes, but Harry was starting to make it look like what they had been doing was no more than throwing fluffy bunnies at the problems….

It didn't exactly reassure him when Andi gave him a grim smile and reminded him that Harry was a son of the House of Black too, as his grandmother Dorea was a true daughter of the House of Black, not when they were working with her Cousin Sirius to set the House of Black to rights and their daughter Nymphadora was showing every sign of becoming a 'true daughter of the House of Black' as well, even if she had followed his footsteps into Hufflepuff at Hogwarts…. Though when he said something about that, Andi had smugly reminded him that Amelia Bones and Alastor Moody had also been proud Hufflepuffs and no-one could question _their_ ability to be ruthless when required.

* * *

Albus was not at all impressed to see Bathilda Bagshot sitting at the High Table for dinner on Sunday night, because McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick had been using the fact that he no longer had control of who could access the Headmaster's office and chambers to repeatedly barge in without asking for permission and berate him if he wasn't working on the History of Magic lesson plans…. They'd actually had the gall to call him a senile old fool when he said that he'd just use Cuthbert's lesson plans, pointing that the shite Binns was supposedly teaching was the reason he had been cast out of Hogwarts. McGonagall had even told him that if they _ever_ heard that he was teaching the same shite as Binns, he'd be cast out the same way, and her expression said that she was quite serious about that, so he'd buckled down preparing lesson plans for the rest of the day and now he discovered that they'd already arranged for Bagshot to take on the position so all that time and effort had been wasted! He went to give McGonagall a piece of his mind about that when she arrived but she cut him off at the knees dismissively.

"Shut up ye old fool! We knew that we needed a proper teacher for an important subject like History of Magic, but we didn't _waste_ your time as ye say, the purpose of that was to get ye back into practice for preparing to teach, because as I'm about to announce, ye will be filling in for any teachers we need ye to, including your bloody wolf if he doesn't stop bothering Duke Potter Peverell!"

True to her word, before dinner started, Minerva addressed the Great Hall, saying that they had managed to get the author of their History of Magic text, Madam Bathilda Bagshot, to accept the role of Hogwarts' History of Magic Professor, and she would be teaching them the true facts which had come to light since the last edition of History of Magic had been printed, so it promised to become an interesting subject.

"Of course as a result of this, you will not be having Professor Dumbledore teach you History of Magic, but Professor Dumbledore has agreed with the Hogwarts Board of Governors that keeping up to date on the developments of our student population and subjects is quite important, so from now on he will be assisting with or stepping in to teach subjects as required. I'm sure that you will all agree that it will be good to see Professor Dumbledore getting his hands dirty again."

Albus didn't like the laughter that that statement elicited from the staff and students at all! He was supposed to be respected and revered, not laughed at!

His ears pricked up when she went on though. "As you will find tomorrow, we have been busy today, Professor Burbage has visited the Muggle World with some of the ones who will be assisting her in teaching the updated version of the Muggle Studies Course and I believe that this was quite an eye opener for her…."

Charity started to enthusiastically rave about what she'd seen, then blushed and apologised for interrupting. Minerva waved the apology away and introduced Penny and Margaret Haywood as the first of the History of Magic Assistant Professors, adding that Penny would also be their first Potions Assistant Professor in nearly a century, because Professor Snape had taken her on as his Apprentice for her Potions Mastery. Before Dumbledore could put his two Knuts' worth in about that, Minerva went on to announce that they'd also gotten Lady Augusta Longbottom to agree to become their Wizarding Culture Professor, and classes for that would be starting as soon as she managed to put the course material together.

Dumbledore was furious, she'd made a mockery of him and the way they'd been teaching things at Hogwarts, and even worse she was bringing at least two _Mudbloods_ onto the teaching staff at Hogwarts, even going so far as to make one of them a Potions Mastery Apprentice! They were ruining all his hard work to ensure that none but those he could trust to follow him got proper training in key fields, and the way Bathilda Bagshot and Augusta Longbottom were looking at him implied that they'd somehow broken free of the compulsions to be loyal to him and the memory blocks he'd placed on them. That new Caretaker seemed to be suspiciously immune to compulsions as well, it was looking like McGonagall was taking over control of Hogwarts, and that didn't bode well for him at all…..

* * *

Santa, I mean Alfred, and his elves had been busily creating more trunks and Shield Holsters, so Astoria, Daphne's best friend Tracey Davis, Blaise Zabini, Padma Patil, Penelope Clearwater, Percy, Fred and George Weasley and most of the adults in their group were set up with them now. After Hannah Abbot showed her true colours like that, _everyone_ in the group had been probed to determine their true intentions and allegiances and had the secrecy charms cast over them, and they were relieved to get confirmation that everyone else they trusted had been honest with them.

The Shield Holsters and War Wands were a development of what the Warrior Mage line of Medrawt had created in the Tenth Century, so that they'd always have a sword and shield at hand. Henri Corbeau had heard stories about the War Wands and sought out Alfred's great grandfather in the early Nineteenth Century to beg for knowledge of how the Medrawts had created them, and he had remained a close friend of the family up until his death in Nineteen Oh Seven. Henri and Albert had worked together to create updated and more effective versions of the arm bracers and War Wands before Henri's death, and several decades later Alfred incorporated his other developments into them to create the Shield Holsters, including the ability to be out of phase with the world the wearer lived in and called to the one whose magical signature it was keyed to at will. The suits of enchanted chain mail that were created from the Shield Holsters gave better protection than plate armour in both Magical and Mundane combat and could go out phase with the 'real' world to avoid curses and blows that the armour couldn't handle. You had to be able to push quite a bit of magic into the Shield Holsters to generate the full head to toe suits of armour, but for those who could, the enchanted armour and War Wands were real game changers in a fight. Harry and the others could read Alfred's expression well enough by now though to pick up the fact that teaching them how to use these effectively was going to be great fun for him….. and none of them had any question that that meant that it would be torture for them because he had the same glint in his eye as Alastor Moody.

The castle was buzzing by the time dinner came around on Monday night, because most of the students were enthusiastically discussing the changes in History of Magic, Muggle Studies and Potions, but Minerva and the others who could read Dumbledore's expression could tell that it wasn't just anger about the fact that they were changing everything he'd set up at Hogwarts and there was nothing he could do about it. Of course, Minerva was capable of cheating in this, because one of the things she'd inherited when she took control of the wards from Dumbledore was the monitoring wards he had set up to record who the Floos in Hogwarts were connected to, so she knew that he had been contacted by Elphias Doge and someone from the Burrow, which she presumed was Molly Weasley….. Which meant that she knew that Dumbledore would be furious about the fact that a second Emergency Wizengamot Session less than a week after the one that had turned their world upside down, and he didn't have a clue about what it was being called for. She smiled to herself at the thought of the Wizengamot Session tomorrow, because he was going to be even more furious when the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol Officers turned up out of the blue at breakfast with a summons for him to appear in front of the Wizengamot in that session.


	8. It's Miller Time

**People seem to have widely differing views on the goblins in the HP world, so I thought I'd explain how I see them in this, and in fact most of my stories, feel free to ignore this if you aren't interested. **

**The way I see it, the goblins are an ancient, intelligent and methodical culture who make sure that they doesn't forget their history and are working to make those they deal with more friendly and accepting towards to their race. While I agree with the stereotype of them being a warrior race who are quite ready and willing to fight if provoked, they've always been described as 'right clever', so doing anything so stupid as to attack other races who can easily wipe them out without strong provocation isn't something I see them doing. The Wizarding World as a whole treats them with disrespect and disdain though, so I can definitely see them doing anything and everything they can short of provoking outright war to poke the Wizarding World in the eye…. And under the tenets of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', I can easily see a clever people like that being quite willing to form mutually beneficial alliances with any other like minded magical or non-magical people to improve their circumstances to the disadvantage of the Wizarding World. **

**This story also shares the another theme of many of my other stories, in that the Potter family is favoured by the goblins because it has championed the fae people for millennia. They are also the nominal owners of many of the fae peoples' business interests in the human worlds (both magical and non-magical), as I see this as the type of thing clever, methodical people would do toChapter 8 ease their way into getting established in worlds where they are not welcomed or understood. FWIW**

**Yet another theme I use is that recipients of the Order of Merlin, First Class, are awarded a Baronetcy and their family becomes a Minor House if it is below that to give them a voice in the Wizengamot. The proper form of address for a Baronet is 'Sir'.**

**BTW: For our 'Merican brethren, sorry if anyone's offended but 'It's Miller Time' was just a handy moniker for the chapter as I never really liked most 'Merican beers I tried. Unless I've gotten them mixed in the last thirty years or so, Miller just tasted like lolly water to me, while Bud tasted like dishwater. Mind you, I don't like too many Aussie beers either, Boag's is generally all I buy and I usually upset drinkers of one of the more popular brands by continually referring to it as Viper's Bile. ;^)**

**Usual silly disclaimers, no rights to anything from JKR's stories.**

The others were relieved to see that Harry and Hermione had apparently sorted out their issues when they came to breakfast….

They had been in the middle of a discussion the night before when Hermione suddenly turned to glare at Harry and demanded. "_What_ period stories?"

Harry's act of confusion when he asked what she was talking about seemed a tad put on to some, but luckily Hermione was too fired up to notice at that point.

"When I introduced you to my parents and you took me to task for not mentioning that Daddy was named for Puck, you said that Riddle had 'read all of Shakespeare's works and many other period stories so that he'd be able to fit into that world better'…. what were the period stories?"

"All sorts of stories from Regency and Victorian times…."

"Like the Jane Austin novels?"

Harry sighed. "Yes, like the Jane Austin novels…."

He didn't have a chance to say anything else because she went off at him. "How could you do that to me? You had me and everyone else convinced that you were trapped in that mindscape for months because _I_ talked you into reading the book!..."

It was Hermione's turn to be cut off. "_Hold it right there!_ For your information, I _did_ read that book because you gave it to me and that _was_ what led me into that mindscape! Sure, all those stories that Riddle read to try and learn how he was expected to behave in Magical Britain fleshed out most of the details which made that world believable but it _was_ your bloody book that took me there! My mind had been associating the people we knew with the characters in the story as I was reading it and when the blocks were stripped away by the dementor I just fell into their world."

With that he whirled about and stormed out of the room, and they heard a 'pop' that said that he'd used one of the portkeys to take him away (unless the one wearing the Shield Holster wished for something or someone else to come with them, the runic portkeys used a variation of the enchantments to create the suits of Goblin Silver armour to limit the air displaced to what was close to their skin, so the noise as they left was generally limited to a 'pop').

Pandemonium broke out in the room and Hermione collapsed in tears as she realised what she'd done. The group got more and more worried when they couldn't find Harry and he wouldn't answer mirror calls, but the more observant ones noted that Hermione had been calming down as Luna whispered in her ear, just before they disappeared as well. Alastor Moody was probably the only one who was watching close enough to note that Alfred, Celeste and Saul were the only ones other than Daphne who didn't appear to be worried about the fact that Harry and two of his betrothed had vanished like that…. Well the others caught the approving and proud look on Celeste's face when Daphne shot down all their demands to know where Harry and her future sister wives had gone to with all the regal aplomb of a Pure-Blood Princess as she haughtily told them that that was _family_ business and no-one outside of their immediate families or the Heads of their Families had any right to demand answers.

What Alfred, Celeste and Saul knew was that both Harry and Luna had somewhere to go where no-one would find them unless they were invited. Saul had at first been furious when he found out that Alfred had been visiting the Department of Mysteries and making use of its facilities whenever he felt like it for the last fifty years, because Albert Corbeau's accesses as a Senior Unspeakable had never been removed from their wards…. Due to the fact that traditional Pure-Bloods couldn't see any reason to go to the effort of removing accesses for a dead man... Once he got past the fact that someone had had almost unlimited access to his department for the last fifty years without his knowledge though, Saul joined in the laughter and agreed that it would be in their best interest for Alfred to keep those accesses.

Lily, Pandora and Celeste had all been brilliant and promising young Unspeakables who enchanted Alfred with their wit, talent and enthusiasm, so he helped them out wherever he could. Among other things, he gave each of them one of his trunks loaded with every security and privacy enhancement he had come up with by then. The trunks were identified by their Unspeakable names, so Lily's was Tigrinium, Pandora's was Pithos and Celeste's was Maat. They did most of their serious research in their trunk spaces and kept everything they wanted to keep safe in there as well, including the magical portraits that they'd secretly had made because they didn't believe that they could trust the people around them to keep their secrets safe from Dumbledore and co.

Unfortunately, while Alfred had worked out how to enchant the trunks so that they would go out of phase with the 'real' world and created rings keyed to the same magical signature as the trunks which could be used to change their state, he hadn't mastered the heirloom enchantments well enough for Lily to be able to call the trunk to her in the nursery, or the runic portkeys to let them pop into the trunk, by that fateful Halloween twelve years ago…. Dumbledore had compelled James to loan him the Potter Invisibility Cloak a few days before and Lily knew that she had no chance of sneaking Harry downstairs and past Voldemort to the utility room where she stored the trunk in an out of phase state without it, so she just concentrated on doing what she could to protect Harry before Voldemort got there…. And while Pandora's trunk _had_ been updated to include the ability to call the trunk to her, the events that led to her suspicious death eight years later had happened too fast for her to get away before she died.

They'd all been keeping their true identities secret when Alfred was dealing with them in the Department of Mysteries, so it was only when he asked about their Unspeakable identities that Alfred discovered that Tigrinium and Pithos were actually Harry and Luna's mothers. Once he realised that though, he had Harry and Luna call their mothers' trunks to them as the Heads of the Ifan and Cathbad Clans, and updated the enchantments on them so that they had everything the new trunks did, adding portkey runes in the trunks and on their Shield Holsters to allow them to portkey straight into them. There hadn't been time yet to update the runes on everything else, but the mirror portals inside Tigrinium and Pithos had had the new runes for them added while he was adding the runes to access most of the group's trunks, so the quickest way to get Hermione to Harry was for Luna to use her runic portkey to pop them into Pithos, and then use its mirror portal to pass into Tigrinium.

The others gave up waiting and went 'home' after they didn't turn up for a few hours, so they hadn't seen Harry, Hermione or Luna since Luna and Hermione disappeared. None of them had liked not knowing where they were or whether they'd sorted everything out, but the only elf who had access to Harry's trunk was Dobby, and he wouldn't take anyone there without Master Harry's approval. He also wouldn't say anything more than that Master Harry, Mistress Hermione and Mistress Luna were fine.

(That was another interesting discussion they'd had on Sunday, because Amelia and the others were shocked to hear that Common Elves' proper forms are closer to High Elves than the way they normally look, but unless they're properly accepted into a house with strong family magic by the Head of House, they grew up stunted and malformed like humans whose growth has been effected by severe malnutrition. The big difference between elves and humans though is that even if they are properly accepted into a house with strong family magic as adults, the family magic can correct the deficiencies in time, and the stronger the magic, the faster they improve, which was why Dobby was showing such accelerated improvement.)

When they sat down, Hermione quietly explained that she'd initially been angry at herself, that it had taken over a day for her to realise what Harry was saying when she introduced him to her parents, and she'd taken that out on Harry. She'd realised what she'd done almost straight away, but by that time Harry had stormed off. Luna and Daphne had talked her down from the panic she went into when she realised what she'd done and Daphne agreed to cover for them when Luna told them that she'd _seen_ where Harry had gone to, and she could take Hermione there. They'd sat down and talked it out, with Daphne joining them after the main group broke up, and they'd all spent the night in Tigrinium (while they were primarily set up as research facilities, the Three Musketeers' trunks all had comfortable living spaces as well).

* * *

Their friends (and the adults who were linked in via the communicator mirrors) were happy to hear that everything had been resolved, but their discussion was interrupted by the DMLE Patrol Officers who entered the Great Hall and proceeded to the High Table, stopping to place a scroll on the table in front of Dumbledore…. This was the morning's entertainment that they'd been waiting for.

"Albus Percival Dumbledore, of the Dumbledore Wizarding Family, you are hereby summoned to appear before the Emergency Wizengamot Session that has been called for this morning, please come with us."

Dumbledore quickly covered up the flash of fear and anger that crossed his face when he looked at the scroll in front of him, knowing full well that if he touched that scroll he'd be compelled to do as they said, but those who were watching for it caught it. He obviously thought he could get away with the same bullshit as he'd been using for the last sixty or seventy years though as he came back with.

"You should have checked your information before you came here Officers, as that is not my proper name. I am _Sir_ Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Head of the Minor House of Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, _First_ Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chie…." He stopped himself just in time from claiming the titles of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot of Magical Britain and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, which he'd lost last week. "and Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

This had been how he'd gotten around all the oaths and vows he'd had to make to build up his image over the last half century, he could make any oath they wanted as Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore and cast a subtle non-verbal lumos to fake the effect of the oath being accepted, but nothing was binding as that wasn't his true name. It had been working for over fifty years and nothing would stop…

"Oh I'm sorry _Sir_ Albus, someone back at the Ministry must have made a mistake. If you'll just pick up that Summons scroll in your left hand and make a magical oath on your life and magic that you are indeed Sir Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Head of the Minor House of Dumbledore, Holder of the Order of Merlin, First Class…. Grand Sorcerer and the Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we will leave you in peace, and I will ensure that you get a formal apology from the Wizengamot for this embarrassing incident."

Lupin leapt to his feet to vent his outrage at the Great Albus Dumbledore being treated like this, but he was covered by a pair of wands before his chair hit the floor. The voice he was being coldly addressed in held none of the false deference or respect that Dumbledore had been addressed with.

"I suggest that you sit down and shut up Right. Now! Professor Lupin. You are no more than a hair's breadth away from being taken away and formally charged with interfering with Officers of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the performance of their official duties. We are also aware of your condition, so if we have to take action to stop you, we will be using stronger spells than we would on ordinary wizards."

Dumbledore couldn't afford to lose the only person in the Castle he could depend on to do as he said, so he jumped in. "Don't worry Remus, this will all be resolved peacefully so just take a seat…. As for you, _Officer__s_, you can be assured that I will be speaking with your superiors about your treating something as potentially dangerous as a magical oath so frivolously. Oaths are not something to be played around with..."

The Senior Officer wasn't in the mood to pander to this old charlatan any more, he'd been shown the file to date to ensure that he and his partner would be prepared for what they may come up against here… That was why they'd been keeping an eye on Lupin, as he was the only strong ally Dumbledore had in the castle. "The only thing _frivolous_ in this matter Mister Dumbledore is the way _you_ are treating a formal summons to appear before the Wizengamot! As I stated to both you and the Professor, we have _formally_ served you with the summons to appear, and the only two options here are that you come with us right now, or you swear a magical oath on your life and magic that you are in fact who you have said you are. Either way, I am now formally _ordering_ you to pick up the summons I have just served you with. If you are who you say you are, nothing will happen, but that and your magical oath as to your true identity are the only things which will be accepted by the Wizengamot as valid reasons for your failure to appear before them…."

"What are you waiting for Mister Dumbledore? Pick up that summons _now_!"

Albus was still trying to work out a way to get out of this. If that thrice damned Phoenix hadn't disappeared he could have called it to take him out of here and he could hold off on appearing before the Wizengamot until he'd made all the proper arrangements to ensure that everything would go his way, but it had deserted him…. If he touched that scroll he'd be proven a liar, but there was no way that damned Patrol Officer was going to let him get out of doing that. He could see that the only way to avoid that was going to be fighting his way out, but the way those Patrol Officers were holding their wands said that they were itching for a fight. For that matter he could see out the corner of his eye that McGonagall and half of the ones at the High Table had their hands on their wands, as did Potter and the other students associated with him. He tried to get out of this with a little dignity intact and stood up.

"Very well Officer, I will go with you and speak to the Wizengamot, but rest assured that I will be requiring a formal apology from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as well as the Wizengamot when we have cleared this matter up due to your behaviour here!"

The Senior Patrol Officer was unrepentant as he pointed his wand at the Summons scroll. "You have apparently forgotten something Mister Dumbledore. Please pick up the Summons you have been served with as ordered."

If looks could kill for humans like they did for basilisks, he would have dropped dead, then and there, but the furious glare Albus sent his way had no effect on him. When Albus didn't move to take up the scroll, he looked at the other officer and at the man's nod, they both raised their wands to point at him and the Senior Officer held up his off hand in a fist. Albus realised that he was counting down by the time he'd raised his thumb and two fingers on that hand and hurriedly snatched up the Summons when he raised the third finger, because it was obvious that they'd start firing stunners at him (well he _hoped_ they'd be stunners) the moment that last finger was raised.

Those who were watching closely (which was well over half of those in the Great Hall by that point) saw him react when he took up the Summons and the compulsions keyed to Albus Percival Dumbledore, of the Dumbledore Wizarding Family, took effect knew that he'd been lying about his true name, which meant that as soon as he was escorted out by the Patrol Officers there would be a mass exodus to the owlery as students notified their parents and guardians of what had happened this morning.

* * *

The rush to the owlery played right into their hands, actually, because Harry was popped down to the antechamber for Chamber of Secrets by Dobby, and once he opened the chamber and set a few portkey locator crystals down inside for Minerva, Filius, Pomona and Severus used the runic portkeys on their Shield Holsters to pop down. Saul, Celeste and Alfred did the same, but they shuttled down the ones who'd been petrified by the basilisk, along with Percy and Ginny (Percy was there to look after Ginny). Saul, Celeste and Alfred were wearing their Unspeakable robes so that the runic portkeys could be passed off as something the Department of Mysteries had come up with (which was true to a point, seeing as Alfred had done much of the work to develop them there). There were more than a few screams when they saw the basilisk, and Justin and Ginny fainted. Once they'd been given a chance to face up to their fears and reassure themselves the monster that petrified them was truly dead, they were taken back and the rest of the ones in their group (students and adults) came down to see the basilisk before the team of goblins began rendering it down.

Harry also called Myrtle down to the chamber so that she could get some closure in regard to the creature that killed her before it was rendered down, and that caused quite a bit of excitement, because he'd had to open the doors to the chamber again so she could come in via the tunnels (there appeared to be wards on the walls, floor and ceiling of the Chamber which prevented wizard, goblin and elf apparation, wizard and goblin portkeys and ghosts from passing through, presumably to keep everyone but Parselmouths out of the Chamber), and the goblins discovered that the massive doors were at least eighteen inches thick and made of solid goblin silver. In the thousand years since the Chamber was built, the world's resources of the rare ore that was needed to create goblin silver had become more and more scarce. This had made the rare metal become over a hundred times more valuable than gold, so in today's world that much pure goblin silver represented an incredible fortune. It wasn't too difficult for Gringott to convince Harry to agree to have the doors and fittings removed and the wall sealed up so that the chamber could only be accessed by Alfred's runic portkeys and mirror portals, because he'd already asked for the tunnels between Hogwarts and the Chamber to be filled in.

They had already agreed that Ginny Weasley and all of the basilisk's victims would be receiving shares of the proceeds of the sale of its parts, along with Hogwarts, but when the subject of the goblin silver from the Chamber doors and anything else they found in the Chamber came up, Minerva put her foot down and said that that belonged to Harry alone as the magically accepted Head of House of Slytherin.

For all the excitement in the Chamber of Secrets, they were done down there quick enough that the ones who would be staying at Hogwarts that day were back in time for the first classes which started forty minutes after Dobby popped Harry down to the antechamber. Harry would be missing at least part of another day's lessons though, as he would be in the Wizengamot session where Albus Dumbledore and others would be finding out that they were no longer the favoured children of fate. He felt guilty about leaving Hermione to face all of Ron Weasley's inevitable whining and abuse about the fact that he hadn't been included in the party who were taken to see the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, but he knew that Neville would be there to support her, and the others too as much as their schedules permitted.

* * *

Harry got into the Wizengamot chamber before most people began to arrive, the magic of the chamber accepted his right to be there as the Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter and Its Associated Houses and Clans, and it had no eyes so the fact that he was under the Peverell Invisibility Cloak didn't register to it. Picking an out of the way spot to sit, he cast a minor aversion charm around it to prevent his being exposed by someone trying to sit on him. He'd also come in via the trunk Saul had in his office, so no-one outside their group had any idea he was in the Ministry building at all.

Dumbledore, Albert Finney and Ex-Minister Millicent Bagnold were sitting on a bench behind the defendant's chair and they didn't look happy, well Dumbledore and Bagnold were looking worried and Finney looked like he was shitting himself. None of them looked overly confident about the representative of the International Magical Office of Law who was talking to them either, but that was understandable because Harry could hear the pompous buffoon going on about the very idea of anyone suing the _Ministry_ being _Preposterous!_ If he'd bothered asking anyone who had been active in legal proceedings in Magical Britain in the last fifteen years, they would have told him that that was a stupid position to take when he was going up against Andi and Ted Tonks, as they were the most accomplished Barrister/Solicitor team in Magical Britain and one of the best legal teams in Magical Europe.

They hadn't even gotten past reading the charges being presented before the Ministry's legal representative had to be slapped down by the Presiding Panel for interrupting the reading of the charges. That made Bagnold join Finney in looking like she was shitting herself, because the ex-Ravenclaw was bright enough to know that they were screwed, even if the other two weren't, but Dumbledore wasn't really paying attention after the item that had been introduced before they began the main event.

* * *

When it was announced, many Wizengamot members tried to argue that this wasn't the time or place for something like that, so the Presiding Panel had the Clerk of the Court read out the particulars of the ancient right to call for family magic to judge whether someone was fit to lead the family, specifically the fact that family members had the right to challenge the current head at any time, but it had to be done via the Stone of Truth in a formal Wizengamot session. It was also pointed out that if the family magic judged the challenge to be spurious, the challenger could be stripped of everything they owned and formally cast out of the family.

Albus' heart was in his mouth as his brother Aberforth approached the Stone of Truth, because he knew full well that Aberforth had retained memories of more than enough to destroy him here, as he'd gained enough of the Dumbledore Family Magic to protect his mind from most of the methods Albus used to remove evidence of his wrong doings from others' minds and compel them to follow his orders. He knew he was sunk when Aberforth spoke, and the Stone ensured that everyone in the chamber heard his words.

"**I, Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, challenge Albus Percival Dumbledore's fitness to lead the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, on the grounds that he has brought shame on the family by causing the deaths of the Baron and Baroness Warg in Eighteen Ninety Nine and framing their son, Randolph Mordred Warg, to be blamed for his crime, as well as causing the deaths of our mother, Kendra Mary Dumbledore nee Miller, and sister, Ariana Kendra Dumbledore in Eighteen Ninety Nine. Albus Percival Dumbledore also willingly colluded with his lover, Gellert Grindlewald, on their shared plan to gain mastery over the Wizarding World up until Nineteen Forty Five, at which point he betrayed Grindelwald and caused him to be imprisoned in Nurmengard in order to gain acclaim for 'defeating' the Dark Lord. He also framed myself, Alberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, for his own crimes of using unnatural charms and actions regarding goats and caused me to be imprisoned in Azkaban in Nineteen Forty Three to take attention off the young boy he was grooming to replace his lover Gellert Grindelwald as the Dark Lord to be held up to frighten the masses, Tom Marvolo Riddle. He then went on to facilitate Riddle's rise as the so called Dark Lord Voldemort and was responsible for the deaths of the Duke and Duchess apparent of Potter and Peverell, James and Lily Potter, in Nineteen Eighty One, along with the imprisonment of Earl Sirius Black, Heir to Duke Black, in Azkaban on false charges and without the trial he was legally required to be given, and the ongoing abuse of the current magically accepted Duke Potter Peverell, Henry James Potter, by illegally placing him with Lily Potter's estranged sister and her husband to be mistreated, illegally sealing the Potters' wills and falsely claiming himself to be Harry Potter's appointed guardian. Albus Percival Dumbledore is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of Wizards, Witches, Squibs and Muggles as a result of his collusion with Gellert Grindelwald and Tom Riddle, AKA _Lord_ Voldemort. Among those who died were Dukes Henry and Charlus Potter Peverell, Duchess Dorea Potter Peverell nee Black and numerous other Heads of Noble, Ancient and Most Ancient Houses and Clans. As such, Albus Percival Dumbledore has brought great shame on the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore and Magical Britain and is therefore unfit to lead the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore and I call upon the Family Magic of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore to judge him for his actions and strip the Leadership of the Dumbledore family from him!"**

The Stone of Truth glowed brightly as it searched Aberforth's memories and then 'spoke', channelling the Dumbledore Family Magic.

"**Albus Percival Dumbledore, o****f**** the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, present yourself to be judged ****by the Dumbledore Family Magic****!**"

The MLE Patrol Officers serving as Officers of the Court had to drag Dumbledore to his feet and across the floor to the Stone of Truth, forcibly placing his hands on the surface of the crystal. The crystal brightened when his hands touched its surface and try as he might, he couldn't remove them. The light was blinding as the Dumbledore Family Magic ripped through his head, looking for evidence of the events that it had seen in Aberforth's head and any other memories that supported his claim that Albus was unfit to lead the Dumbledore Family. The light dimmed after about ten minutes and the Stone 'spoke' again.

"**The Dumbledore Family Magic has found Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore's challenge ****to Albus Percival Dumbledore's right to lead**** the ****Wizarding Family of Dumbledore on the ****grounds ****of each of**** Albus Percival Dumbledore'****s ****stipulated ****actions ****having ****brought great shame on the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore to be justified and Albus Percival Dumbledore is hereby removed as Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore. Furthermore, the Dumbledore Family Magic calls ****up****on the new Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, to cast Albus Percival Dumbledore from the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, to remove this blight ****on**** the Dumbledore Family's honour."**

Aberforth eagerly stepped forward to do as he was bid, but his brother shouted at him to stop. While he was obviously frightened about what was happening, there was a smugness about him that said he had something up his sleeve.

"_**Any actions which lead to me no longer being accepted as Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, will cause the ruination of Magical Britain!"**_

The look that Griselda Marchbanks fixed him with as she hissed "_Explain!_" just about made him wet himself, because that witch had always terrified him, but he believed that he had them over a barrel so his smugness didn't go away.

"If you read the penalties written into the magical contracts for the upcoming TriWizard Tournament that Minister Fudge officially accepted on behalf of Magical Britain last month, you will find that if Magical Britain, France or the Nordic Congress pull out of the agreement before the TriWizard Tournament finishes naturally, the defaulting party will lose its status as an independent country and the other two parties in the contract will divvy up its resources between them. The contract also stipulates that I, Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, must lead the TriWizard Tournament Committee, so casting me out of the Dumbledore Family so I lose my name or dismissing me from my position as Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will cause the ruin of Magical Britain."

Griselda turned her ire on Fudge at that point. "Is this true Minister Fudge?"

"I… I don't know…. I mean I signed the contracts for the TriWizard Tournament of course but no one told me about any penalties like that…."

"Didn't you have these contracts reviewed by the International Magical Office of Law or the Wizengamot's Legal Advisors before you signed them?"

"Why would I be expected to do that? Albus Dumbledore, the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards told me that everything was in order and Delores agreed, there was no higher authority to consult!"

Griselda growled and ordered that someone have either certified copies of those contracts, or the originals if they couldn't be copied properly, brought to the Wizengamot chamber immediately!

Albus Dumbledore was too smug for this to be a lie, so the ones who knew the old laws best spent the time while the contracts were being retrieved under privacy charms, debating how they could comply with the Dumbledore Family Magic's demand to get rid of him without falling foul of the penalties of those contacts. Aberforth was quite happy to go along with the solution that they came up because it would allow him and the Family to be shut of Albus without bringing ruin down on the country.

It didn't take long to confirm that the penalties Dumbledore told them about were indeed written into the TriWizard Tournament Contracts, and that they'd been magically accepted by the leaders of the three participating countries, so Aberforth stepped up to the Stone of Truth and placed his hands on it.

"_**I, Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, Accepted Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, charge that the honour of the name Dumbledore has been irreversibly stained by the actions of Albus Percival Dumbledore. Therefore I **__**petition**__** the Dumbledore Family Magic to grant me leave to **__**hereby **__**change the family name from Dumbledore to Miller, the maiden name of the last Consort of the Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore, my mother, Kendra Mary Dumbledore nee Miller…."**_

There was a flash and the Stone 'spoke'._** "The Dumbledore Family Magic is in agreement with the proposal of Aberforth Llewellyn Dumbledore, Head of the Wizarding Family of Dumbledore. To free **__**itself **__**of the shame brought on the family name by Albus Percival Dumbledore, the **__**Dumbledore F**__**amily **__**will henceforth be**__** the Wizarding Family of Miller, with Aberforth Llewellyn Miller as its head…."**_

Aberforth respectfully bowed his head and said. _**"I thank you for granting me this boon so that I may cleanse the family of its shame and hereby cast Albus Percival Miller from the Wizarding Family of Miller f**__**or**__** bringing great shame on the family through his reprehensible actions. A**__**ny and a**__**ll ties between Albus Percival Miller and the Wizarding Family of Miller are he**__**reby **__**forever **__**severed and he is **__**henceforth**__** to **__**be known by his birth name of Albus Percival Dumbledore!"**_

The stone flashed again and spoke._** "Albus Percival Miller has **__**hereby **__**been cast from the Wizarding Family of Miller. He will henceforth be known as Albus Percival Dumbledore **__**and **__**ha**__**ve **__**no **__**ties of any **__**nature **__**with**__** the Wizarding Family of Miller!"**_

The Officers of the Court were now pretty much supporting all of Dumbledore's weight, he'd slumped when he lost the position of Head of the Dumbledore Family, and most of the Dumbledore Family Magic with it, but when he was cast out of the family and lost the rest of the family magic he just about fainted, and Aberforth wasn't done yet.

"_**Due to the actions of the previous Head of the Family, the Wizarding Family of Miller has now been reduced to myself, Aberforth Llewellyn Miller. Therefore, to avoid the family magic and knowledge of the Wizarding Family of Miller being lost, I hereby name Duke Henry James Potter as Heir to the Wizarding Family of Miller!"**_

The Stone flashed and spoke again, as the Miller Family Magic accepted his decree. _**"Henry James Potter is he**__**reby**__** accepted as Heir to the Wizarding Family of Miller!"**_

There were grim smiles on the faces of the Officers of the Court as they dragged Dumbledore back to the defendants' bench and dumped him there, as the old bastard had just lost much of what he'd sacrificed generations of Witches, Wizards and Squibs of Magical Britain to get.

Where he was sitting in the gallery, Harry was reeling, because while he wouldn't get the full Heir's share of the family magic until and unless he was blood adopted into the Miller Family, he now knew that the Dumbledore Family Legacy had been that of the pre-eminent beast masters of Magical Britain and Europe, using their proprietary family mind magic and communications abilities to control magical creatures, and that Dumbledore had twisted these abilities to let him control humans and other magical beings. But Dumbledore didn't have access to the Miller Family Magic any more, so his ability to control people had been largely cut off, which would make it very hard for him to get this session to work in his favour. Harry didn't bother trying to hold back his grin at that thought, because he was hidden under the invisibility cloak.

As far as Harry was concerned, this session had already succeeded in one of their primary goals, because while they'd always known that the sheeple of Magical Britain would prevent Dumbledore getting his just deserts in the Wizengamot, they _couldn't_ question the judgement of his family magic on his crimes, and the fact that Aberforth's charges against had _all_ been found to be justified on the basis of evidence in his own head proved him to be guilty of nearly a century of heinous crimes. With most Wizengamot members present and much of the public gallery filled for this session, there was no way of covering up what had been exposed here, and in the eyes of most who made up the Wizarding World, there was nothing so damning as being rejected by your own family magic.

* * *

When Andi started going through the case that they had against the Ministry, the pompous fool that the Ministry had representing them kept interrupting her, and it didn't take long for Harry to grow tired of his empty posturing, which seemed centred around loudly proclaiming that just about everything Auntie Andi said was "_Preposterous!_". After about twenty minutes of this, Harry silently flew down to the chamber floor (flying without a broom was one of Voldemort's more useful tricks) and took off his invisibility cloak.

"I apologise for this interruption, My Ladies and Lord of the Presiding Panel and Baroness Tonks, but may I have your leave to have a few matters clarified?"

Tiberius looked confused, but Griselda and Amelia were trying to cover their grins as they nodded their acquiescence to his request, saying "Of course, Duke Potter Peverell." because they could tell that he was going to humiliate this fool. Andi just nodded when Harry looked at her, as she had a good idea of what was going to happen as well.

With that, Harry turned to the Ministry official. "Mister Abernathy, did you complete your OWLs and NEWTs at Hogwarts?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

Harry shot a pained look at the Presiding Panel in exasperation and Griselda piped up. "He got four rather mediocre OWLs and barely scraped through to get two NEWTs from Hogwarts Duke Potter."

"May I ask which subjects he got his NEWTs in Baroness Marchbanks?"

"He got As in History of Magic and Astronomy."

"Thank you, so I would presume that he should be familiar with Baron Godric Gryffindor's importance in the History of Magical Britain?"

"I would certainly hope so!"

Harry nodded his thanks and turned back to Abernathy. "Were you present in Gryffindor Cottage in Godric's Hollow on the night of the Thirty First of October Nineteen Eighty One Mister Abernathy?"

"What are you going on about boy?"

"You will address me as Duke Potter or Duke Potter Peverell Mister Abernathy! Now answer the question please…. Were you present in Gryffindor Cottage on the night of Halloween Nineteen Eighty One?"

"No!"

"Thank you. One last question. What are your legal qualifications and experience Mister Abernathy?"

"What..." He stopped when he saw he was going to get the same reaction and puffed his chest out. "I have held a position in the International Magical Office of Law in the Department of International Magical Cooperation since August Nineteen Fifty Seven!"

They somehow all heard Harry muttering to himself. "Is he deaf, or just can't understand my questions? Maybe someone should check the Law Office for Confundus enchantments….?"

He turned to where Hector Fawley was sitting beside Fudge. "Sir Hector, you were employed in the International Magical Law Office before you became Minister Fudge's Senior Undersecretary, were you not?"

Hector nodded. "Yes Duke Potter, I was..."

"Would you happen to know enough about Mister Abernathy's background to be able to answer the question that he does not appear to be able to understand?"

Hector nodded again. "Yes, actually, I do Duke Potter. Mister Abernathy joined the Law Office soon after he got his NEWT results and it had been confirmed that he'd gained an Acceptable NEWT in History of Magic, which was the only qualification needed to be employed in the Law Office…."

He cut off the question he saw Harry was about to ask. "And to the best of my knowledge, Mister Abernathy has never taken a leave of absence to intern with any of Magical Britain's legal firms or complete legal studies at any accredited magical or non-magical educational institutions outside of Magical Britain… there are no institutions in Magical Britain accredited to provide legal education…. And I have never seen any indication that Mister Abernathy has done any independent studies of the laws of Magical Britain or any other legal matters. It is my understanding the Noble House of Rosier sponsored Mister Abernathy's Grandfather's purchase of the position he now holds in an attempt to progress a trade agreement they were on the process of negotiating some fifty or so years ago."

Harry bowed to him. "_Thank you_ Sir Hector, I was beginning the wonder whether I was being too obtuse with my questions…. And the fact that it is a purchased position that Mister Abernathy holds does explain quite a bit…. Just as a matter of interest, would it be too presumptuous to inquire as to your own legal qualifications, and what you know of Baroness Tonks, the Presiding Panel and the Clerk of the Court's?"

"Not at all Duke Potter, I studied at an ICW accredited institution to gain my qualifications in International Magical Law and interned with Rhys, Fleamont and Du for two years, where I was required to make in depth studies of the laws of Magical Britain and the ICW and practised magical law for about eight years before I joined the International Magical Law Office. Mister Fawcett, the Clerk of the Court, did much the same, though he interned with the firm of Burke and Wills and has practised magical law for around twenty years or so. Baroness Tonks studied law at the Muggle Oxford University and interned with what has since become Rhys, Fleamont, Du and Tonks because she and Lord Tonks are now partners in the firm, so she was required to make the same in depth studies of the laws of Magical Britain and the ICW and has practised law in Magical Britain and Europe for around fifteen years. To the best of my knowledge, Baroness Marchbanks, Director Bones and Earl Ogden have not interned with any legal firms in Magical Britain, completed any formal legal studies or practised magical law beyond Director Bones prosecuting criminal cases in the Wizengamot, but I am aware that they had all done extensive research into the laws of Magical Britain at least, and to some extent the ICW as well."

"Thank you again Sir Hector, so to summarise, yourself, the Clerk of the Court and Baroness Tonks all have formal legal qualifications and experience and you and the Presiding Panel have all made in depth studies in the laws of Magical Britain… but Mister Abernathy has no formal legal qualifications or experience and has not to your knowledge made any extensive studies of the laws of Magical Britain…. Would that be an accurate summary of what you have told us Sir Hector?"

Hector was careful to keep a shit eating grin from showing in his face, this boy was vicious! "Yes Duke Potter, that would be an accurate summary of the information, to the best of my knowledge."

Harry bowed his head to the man, saying "Yet again, thank you Sir Hector." before he turned back to Abernathy.

"While that may explain your ignorance of the facts in this matter Mister Abernathy, it does _not_ excuse your inappropriate responses to my kinswoman Baroness Tonks, and if you do not temper your responses you will feel the wrath of the House of Potter..."

He was interrupted by Sirius calling out "_And_ Black!" from his box in the upper tier and nodded.

"And Black… Now…. the reason I was asking for these clarifications is that you appear to be ignorant of the magnitude of the crimes of the people who represented the Ministry in this matter. Most everyone in this chamber will agree that Baron Godric Gryffindor was a significant figure in the history of Magical Britain..."

He waited until the people shouting 'of course he is!' had quietened down.

"And as Baroness Tonks has noted, Gryffindor Cottage, which the Ministry _stole_ from the House of Potter, then desecrated and allowed unknown parties to strip it of countless heirlooms and precious mementos belonging to the Potter Family through failing to erect any protections at all over the building, was in fact the ancestral home of Godric Gryffindor and home of the Heir to the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter for over eight centuries. If you had bothered to study the laws of Magical Britain before you came into this session, you would have known that the Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor and Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter have the right to _demand_ proper restitution from the Ministry for its losses and this insult…. And as for my question as to whether you were present at Gryffindor Cottage on the night of Halloween Nineteen Eighty One…. My Ladies and Lord of the Presiding Panel, do I have your leave to share memories which relate to this with the members of the Wizengamot and the witnesses present?"

He indicated who the 'witnesses' were by waving at the public gallery.

Griselda, Amelia and Tiberius had to fight as hard as Hector to hide their smirks as they nodded and Tiberius responded. "Please do Duke Potter Peverell, I have the feeling that this will be quite enlightening."

They brought in the chamber pensieve and set it up in front of the Presiding Panel. Most of the chamber would be able to see what was displayed but they and the ones around them would have the best view. When Harry dropped his memories into the pensieve and the Clerk of the Court touched the runes to project the image and begin showing it. They first saw images of life in the cottage, the Potter family and the treasures and memories that they were surrounded with, but Harry had the Clerk of the Court freeze the memory after they watched Dumbledore casting the Fidelius Charm with Pettigrew as the Secret Keeper.

"The significance of this, for those who don't know how the Fidelius Charm works, is that if both the Caster and Secret Keeper are alive, it _cannot_ be dispelled without _both_ their agreement. As the Wizengamot members who were present at his trial saw, Peter Pettigrew was very much alive a few days ago, so Albus Dumbledore knew damned well that my godfather Duke Black wasn't the Secret Keeper when he told the DMLE that, and signed the order to send him to Azkaban without a trial. He _also_ had to be in contact with Pettigrew in order to be able to remove the Fidelius and make it possible for anyone and everyone in the Magical World to enter my property and strip it bare after Duke Black was sent to Azkaban!"

He nodded to the Clerk of the Court to allow the memory to proceed, but had him freeze it again after they watched the scene where his mother refused to stand aside and Voldemort killed her, then tried to kill Harry and was thrown across the room.

"Please note, _this_ was where Voldemort tried to kill me, and contrary to those stories everyone was told, there was no massive explosion which blasted holes in the walls and roof!"

He nodded to the Clerk of the Court again and the memory proceeded, showing Voldemort writhing on the floor as his body burned up and turned to ash. Harry hadn't wanted to include the next part but he needed the Wizarding World to know the truth about Sirius and the Rat, so he'd shown Peter Pettigrew arriving, wailing about his master's destruction and groping his dead mother's breasts etc as he stole jewellery from her, only to transform into a rat and scurry out of the room when he heard someone downstairs. The next figure they saw arrive with tears streaming down his face was Sirius Black, who dropped to his knees beside Lily Potter's body and tried to rearrange her clothes to respect her decency as he apologised to her. "I'm so sorry Lils, if I hadn't had that stupid idea of making the Rat the secret keeper and telling everyone it was me so Voldemort and his bastards wouldn't be able to find him this wouldn't have happened, but you're all dead because of me!"

At that point, little Harry cried out behind Sirius. "Unca Pafoo? Why Mummy lay down?"

Sirius spun around and snatched Harry up out of his cot, crying his eyes out and apologising again. Harry cut off the memories of that night there, not wanting Hagrid to be attacked for the role he was compelled to play in this, so the next memory was the day that he went to Godric's Hollow with Hermione and Minerva, to find the home that had been intact and full of memories the night of the attack stripped bare inside, with great holes blasted in the roof and walls upstairs. From there an angry Harry was led to the cemetery to view his parents' graves, to find their memory twisted into propaganda that supported Dumbledore's agenda and the traitor being glorified as their equal and closest friend. The devastating blasting curse that reduced the offending headstone to a spray of stone chips no bigger than a fingernail disturbed many watching, because the power needed to do that much damage was beyond anything they could imagine.

Once the memories had played out, Harry began talking again. "As you have all seen, while my parents and I were living in Gryffindor Cottage, and even on the night we were attacked in Nineteen Eighty One, it was full of family heirlooms and other mementos of our lives. When I visited the cottage yesterday however, it had been stripped bare and had obviously been left open to the elements for a number of years, so the Ministry stole my property and then made no attempt to protect what was inside from theft or damage. Then to add insult to injury, they desecrated the memory of my parents and deified that traitorous servant of Tom Riddle as their closest friend and equal. The Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter and Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor _will_ be getting proper restitution for this…. And furthermore! The Ministry has openly insulted my houses by assigning _that_..."

He spun around and stabbed a finger at Abernathy.

"to belittle our loss and mock us. This insult will _not_ go unanswered! Baroness Tonks, the percentage of our original claim that we are prepared to consider accepting as the baseline for the restitution is hereby raised by one half, and each and every time the Ministry's representative mocks us or attempts to interfere with you presenting our case by interrupting you and loudly proclaiming that it is '_Preposterous!_', you will raise that baseline by one percent more! I also reserve the right to challenge _Mister_ Abernathy to an honour duel for the insult he has offered my houses and kinswoman if he continues to offend me, and Minister Fudge as well for allowing him to offer this insult!"

The blast of sound he set off when they all started shouting at him that he couldn't do that was strong enough to knock out a significant number of people in the chamber and be felt throughout the Ministry Building.

"I can't? _Watch me!_ Gryffindor Cottage is the last remaining ancestral home of the Four Founders of Hogwarts and the Wizengamot supported the Ministry in its attempt to steal a key part of my Houses' heritage from us, _after_ that old goat molester half destroyed this priceless piece of Magical Britain's heritage to give credence to his fantastic stories about what happened that night, and no one made any attempt _at all_ to stop anyone else stealing the heirlooms and priceless mementos of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Gryffindor and Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter! One way or another the Wizengamot and Ministry _will_ make suitable restitution to my houses!…. And if anyone questions the Ministry's position on this matter, just look at what they have chosen to represent them, a nobody with no real legal qualifications or experience who is ignorant of or wilfully ignores the significance of my houses' contributions to Magical Britain, which date back to its very origins, and who obviously believes that if he shouts '_Preposterous!_' often and loud enough, the Houses of Potter and Gryffindor will just give up, bow to these insults and go home….."

He looked balefully at the Abernathy, Dumbledore, Bagnold, Finney and Fudge. "_That. Will. Not. Happen!_"

Abernathy leapt to his feet. "Who do you think you are boy?..."

Harry cut him off by turning to Andi and clearly stating. "That will be one percent more Baroness Tonks!"

Andi bowed her head to him. "As you wish Duke Potter Peverell."

Abernathy's spluttering was suddenly cut off and a glance in his direction confirmed that he'd been silenced, so Harry's eyes quickly scanned the Wizengamot members' benches. He fought down his smile when he saw the furious head of one of the most powerful 'Pure-Blood' houses left in the Wizengamot with his wand in his hand. That man was obviously worth watching, because he appeared to be one of the first to have worked out that he would be one of the ones who would have to pay these penalties, which Abernathy's mouth had just increased by yet another Quarter of a Million Galleons.

They left Abernathy silenced for the rest of the session as it was accepted that he was more than a hindrance than a help in resolving the matter at hand. The amount of restitution was eventually settled on as Eight Million Galleons, along with the Ministry's formal promises that it would never again attempt to claim the property of any of the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Potter, Peverell or Black or their Associated Houses and Clans. With the Head of the Wizarding Family of Miller's agreement, so long as his own personal holdings were excluded, Albus Dumbledore, Millicent Bagnold and Cornelius Fudge were made to pay as much of those penalties as possible (Albert Finney and the Minor House of Abernathy as well, but they didn't have much to offer), but that still left over over Five and a Half Million Galleons for the Ministry's 'sponsors' to come up with. Fudge lost nearly everything he had because his supporters held him responsible for having that idiot represent the Ministry instead of a properly qualified Barrister, and that decision alone had cost them nearly Three Million Galleons.

It wasn't lost on most in the Wizengamot that most of the blame for this could be squarely laid at Albus Dumbledore's feet, so while the majority of the sheeple of Magical Britain may still hold to the belief that he made rainbows appear from his nether regions, most of his erstwhile supporters would now rather kill than embrace him. The only thing that saved him from their wrath at this point was that they accepted that they needed to keep him alive until this TriWizard Tournament was finished to save Magical Britain from destruction, and the betting pools had already started on how many minutes he'd live past that.

Harry talked to the 'family' members present after the Wizengamot Session finished and then headed back to Hogwarts. While they had won a lot from the Pure-Bloods in both political and financial terms, the experience had left him utterly drained and he just wanted to be held. Luckily the girls had felt this and were waiting for him when he returned to Wargholm.


End file.
